Defying Gravity
by caisha702
Summary: And just like that, Brianna's done it again. Dekka Talent, even a Dekka Talent with gravity defying mutant powers, is partly terrified by, partly intimidated by, totally in awe of and totally in love with one seemingly fragile-looking girl who calls herself the Breeze...
1. Chapter 1

_**So... This is me writing for something that isn't The Hunger Games... I suppose there's a first (and probably last) time for everything! To all of you who ended up here expecting more Panem, forgive me - normal service will resume next week but I couldn't resist a bit of gap-filling in a different universe :P**_

_**I obviously don't own the FAYZ or anything in it. If I did then I'd make sure Dekka was alive, healthy and happy at the end of 'Light', which she hopefully might still be!**_

* * *

There's something strange going on at Coates Academy. Stranger than normal, I mean. Not just the usual weird stuff associated with the weird kids who go to school here. Not even the way all the adults have vanished or the way some of us have powers we shouldn't have. We've kind of accepted all that by now even if nobody can explain it. Or maybe not accepted it but at least filed it in the 'to deal with later' section of our brains.

What's really weird is that Taylor's gone now. I don't like Taylor much. She's annoying and she gossips more than anyone should. But that's not the only thing about Taylor. Something else about her is that she can move from one place to another instantly. Like some kind of teleportation. And now she's gone. I don't like it. She has power, just like the others who've gone. Combined with how nobody can leave the building through one of the back exits, I can tell something's not right.

I look around the dinner hall, at the kids raiding the kitchen in a way they'd never have got away with only a short time earlier and the kids jumping on the tables and throwing food at each other. I search for Taylor, willing her to appear as if that might disprove my theory and make everything fine again. She's not there. She's nowhere. But Drake Merwin seems to be everywhere these days.

I hate Drake. I don't say that lightly about anyone, but I truly hate him. Or I should say that we hate each other, because even if he does have a psych report that probably accounts for a large amount of the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, when it comes down to it, he's a bully. And all bullies hate what doesn't fear them.

Most of the other kids who've stayed here fear him. They lower their eyes respectfully like he's some kind of god and run from him at the first opportunity. But not me. I look him in the eye. I stand my ground and silently tell him that I'm not afraid, that if he messes with me then I'll mess with him and he might not be the one who comes out the winner. That's why he hates me. Or at least I guess that's why he hates me. He might just be a racist, but that's too boring for someone like him so I'm still going for the other reason.

Drake strolls through the open double doors, scanning the room like he's looking for someone in particular. Most of the kids look at the ground, praying it's not them. He stops when he sees the group of girls in the corner, narrowing his cold, emotionless, blue eyes at the one standing on the table. She stares back, defiant and determined, but then Drake gets closer.

A loud gasp fills the room as Drake raises his fist, not at the girl on the table but at one of the others sitting down. His hand connects with the side of her head and she slumps to the floor to the accompaniment of a scream of rage from the girl on the table. Brianna. I don't know her but I know her name. I've seen her around, watched her race from one mad, crazy thing to another with a lack of fear bordering on insanity. Perhaps it's insanity that makes her launch herself at Drake. Either way, insanity or otherwise, he's ready for her and he smashes one of the cafeteria trays over her head.

"Pick on someone your own size, Merwin!" I shout, reacting without thinking and throwing my hand up so the cart stacked full of trays rises upwards and then crashes down with a sound like an exploding bomb. "Or are you too scared?"

The kids in the hall part like two retreating waves and suddenly there's nobody standing between me and Drake and Brianna's tiny body at his feet. Drake looks uncertainly at the wreck of the trays but is sneering again by the time the other kids can see his face properly.

"Are you calling me a coward?" he yells back.

"I know you're intellectually challenged but I thought even you'd be able to follow that one," I reply, finding courage I didn't know I had from somewhere.

"I'll kill you, Dekka!" he snarls, kicking Brianna as he launches himself across the hall towards me.

I wait for him to get closer, seeing from his eyes that his unusual surrender to blind rage has made him forget what I can do even though I stupidly reminded him only seconds before. Then I flick my hand again, cancelling gravity in the circle around him and raising him up until he floats on the ceiling, trapped and incapable of hurting even the smallest child in the room.

There are a few cheers from the others, but mostly there's stunned silence. I can see it in their eyes and I know Drake can see it as well. They've seen him overpowered. They've seen him defeated. I don't know what to do next, but he's weaker now, humiliated in a way he won't forget. So maybe I should just drop him and check on Brianna. Then I can leave. Get far away from Coates before he recovers enough to get Caine and they both come for me.

My eyes drift back to Brianna as she stirs on the ground. She raises her head a little, but she isn't looking at me. She's looking behind me, and her eyes are wide with fear.

I feel an impossible force hit me from behind and everything goes black.

* * *

Caine. He's my first thought as I begin to wake up. It was him. It had to have been him. There's nobody else here with that sort of power.

I try to sit up, and my eyes fly open when I find I can't. I can't move my hands and they're so cold. The block of solid concrete I see almost makes my heart stop. This is what they've been doing. A freak's power comes from their hands. This is their solution. Caine and Drake's way of stopping us from fighting back. It must be, because all around me there are kids who've had the same treatment. They're all those who aren't regular kids anymore. And they're mostly those who have no love for or loyalty to Caine Soren.

The sound of heels hitting the ground stops my blind panic what could be hours or just seconds later. The girl walks slowly towards me, deliberately making her hips sway like only she can. I close my eyes and turn my head away. I don't want to see her. Yes, she's beautiful on the outside, but inside she's as hideous as Hell itself. How I could have thought her attractive, I'll never know.

"Don't be mad, Dekka," Diana purrs, brushing her impossibly soft hand across my cheek. "This is for your benefit as well as ours. For your own protection, for the protection of all of us."

I try to jerk back from her touch but there's nowhere for me to go. I open my eyes, because all I can think of is showing her she can't use my feelings and my emotions against me anymore. But suddenly I'm not looking at her. It isn't her I see. The person I see is Brianna, as trapped as I am but with a defiance and anger in her eyes that makes them shine in the artificial light. I've never seen anything or anyone more beautiful. She makes Diana look like a gaudy and overdone copy, a poorly made imitation of the real thing. If I thought before that I could be fixed, I know better than to think it now.

"Leave her alone," she growls, fearless despite her situation. "Bitch."

"Or you'll do what?" replies Diana lightly, still not taking her hand off me. "You don't seem like you're going to get very far to me."

"This won't be forever, Ladris," snaps Brianna. "You'll see. This will end and then you'll end. And I'll laugh when I take you down."

"Such stupid courage. Such a pointless fight. And I think you should apologise for your filthy mouth, young lady."

"I'm not a lady. And I'll never apologise to you."

"Brianna," I hiss. "That's enough. Leave it."

She glares back at me but doesn't speak. Her narrow shoulders are visibly trembling with rage. A little voice in my head hopes it's directed at Diana and not at me. I just want her to shut up so she doesn't get hurt. Surely she can see that?

"That's right, Brianna," sings Diana mockingly. "Listen to Dekka like a good girl and nothing bad will happen to you."

"Oh yeah," I reply, unable to help myself. "Don't think a girl with her hands encased in concrete is gonna believe that one."

"Diana! I need you!"

Caine. I'd recognise that voice anywhere. The already cramping muscles in my hands tense and itch as I long to clench them into tight fists. I'd kill him if I could.

"You and Ladris got history then?" comes a voice, snapping me away from my murderous thoughts.

"What d'you mean by that?" I reply, turning to look at Brianna.

She's so close and yet so far away. If my hands weren't trapped I'd be able to push the strand of hair that's fallen across her eye back behind her ear.

"I don't know. Just… I don't know."

"I hate her. Like I hate Caine. And Drake."

"Then why did you tell me to shut up?"

"Because you can't exactly take them on right now, can you?"

"I could try," she retorts with a half smile. Then she looks wistfully at the hall doors. "D'you think they'll feed us again?"

I look at the tray in front of her and realise I must have still been out of it when we were fed the first time. Then I shake my head as if that will get that thought out of my mind. It makes us sound like animals. I can't bear it.

"Not tonight," I reply, scowling at the thought of being dependent on the likes of Drake Merwin.

"I'm going to sleep then," she says, and my breath catches when she shuffles on the bench and then tilts her head to the side until she's leaning on my shoulder. "Goodnight, Dekka."

"Goodnight, Brianna."

I try to sit up straight to start with, telling myself that it's not too late and that I can still cure myself if I try hard enough. Then I decide that everything else is crap so I can allow myself this one small thing. I lean over to the side, pressing my cheek against Brianna's soft hair.

If Caine, Diana and Drake want to break me then they shouldn't have chained me up next to probably the only person in this room who can make me feel so strong.

* * *

"How are all you freaks doing?" crows Drake as he strolls towards us, sadistic grin well in place. "Having a nice day?"

"Better than the one you'll be having when I get out of here!" yells Brianna, and I don't know whether to curse her defiance or smile because of it.

We've been here for days, tied up like animals, and her spirit still hasn't broken. She answers back every time. She's the one with the real strength, and sometimes when I'm cold and hungry and feeling sorry for myself, I think the only thing keeping me going is having her beside me.

Drake doesn't speak as he walks slowly towards us, smacking his leg with what looks like a branch off a tree. And I've been at Coates for long enough to know that silence is worse than yelling with him. Silence means he's properly thinking about what to do next. That's never going to be good for us.

"Think that makes you tough, do you, Merwin? Waving a stick around and threatening people who can't fight back?" I snarl, deliberately baiting him because it's the only thing I can think of to get his attention. "I'd like to see how tough you'd be if I didn't have this concrete block on my hands."

"But you do have that concrete block on your hands," he replies, his voice far too measured and calm for my liking. "And your little girlfriend's pissing me off."

He raises his arm, leaning over Brianna, who stares straight back at him as if she's daring him to do it. I can't let him break her. I won't let him break her. She's my only light in this darkness. I'm starting to think that if she falls then so will I.

What should have been a scream comes out as a low growl when I grit my teeth and force myself to my feet for just long enough to send my block slamming into Brianna's. I'd wanted it to smash but I'm too weak now, and all it does is skid along the floor. But it's enough. It's heavy enough to take her with it and my momentum puts me in her place.

Drake's whip crashes down on my shoulder. The pain of it makes me crumple off the bench to the floor, my head hitting the concrete still fixed to my hands. This time I do scream.

"Drake!"

It's Diana, and I know what her coming here means. She's found another one. The freak who can read the power level of others has betrayed someone else and there'll be one more person sleeping here with us by tomorrow morning.

"Saved by the bell, Talent," Drake growls.

Then he kicks me in the head and everything turns black. Again.

* * *

"Dekka. Wake up. Dekka!"

I hear a pained groan and quickly realise it's coming from me. I try to open my eyes but everything's spinning so I give up and close them. My head hurts. My hands hurt. My shoulder hurts. I don't think there's a part of me that doesn't hurt. Even my legs have started to cramp from being folded underneath me for God knows how long.

"Dekka!" sounds the voice again, increasing in pitch every time. Something pushes against my shoulder right where Drake's whip hit me and I yelp again. "Dekka!"

"You don't give up, do you?" I mumble, attempting to open my eyes for a second time and finding myself face to face with Brianna, who'd apparently been nudging the top of her head against me because she obviously can't use her hands.

"No," she retorts, sounding shocked that I'd even suggest it. "You shouldn't have done what you did. Your head's bleeding now. And your shoulder."

"Is that surprising when you keep knocking it with your thick head?" I reply, trying to keep going because the only other option is letting Caine and Drake win.

"What else was I supposed to do? You wouldn't wake up."

"Might have something to do with Drake kicking me in the head."

"I needed you to wake up. I need you to get up. We fight back together, you know that."

"I know," I reply, and her words give me the strength to struggle back onto the bench. Eventually.

"You lean on me this time," she says, making a show of flicking her hair back off her shoulder.

"Too heavy," I manage. I don't have the energy left for a whole sentence.

"I'm stronger than I look," she replies, narrowing her eyes determinedly at me. "Don't argue with me."

I don't answer, lowering my head against her for a minute before sitting up again. It's more of a physical and mental effort than I thought it would be.

"Don't argue with _me_," I echo before she can speak. "Just go to sleep."

* * *

"Move your tray," I say, my words coming out in the rasping whisper that's all I seem capable of now.

"Why?" she asks, still leaning down to lick the tray like it's going to make more food appear.

When I don't reply, she looks up at me, her hazel eyes still shining even though her cheeks are hollow with pain and hunger. They've barely fed us for days. I don't even know who _they_ are any more. Caine, Diana and Drake have vanished, and rumour has it that they've gone down to Perdido Beach. I almost miss the distraction from hunger that the sight of Drake gave me. Nothing seems to cancel out all other feelings like total, all-consuming hatred.

"Just do it, Brianna," I hiss, forcing my attention back to reality.

She nudges the tray to one side and I push mine over to her at the same time as she realises what I'm doing.

"No," she says, her voice stronger than it was before. "It's yours. You're starving, too."

"You're skin and bones, girl. I'll live," I tell her. "For a bit longer," I add darkly, hoping I was too quiet for her to hear.

She looks at me long and hard for a second and then her hunger gets the better of her. She lowers her head to eat again and I close my eyes, trying to mentally picture another idea for how to give Drake the slowest and most agonising death imaginable. Over the past weeks I've thought of many, each worse than the one before. Or I should probably say better, for me anyway. But perhaps death is too good for him. Perhaps I would encase his hands in concrete instead and see how he likes it.

"Nice language. And in front of the Pe-tard, too."

I know then that he's back. The sound of that voice is about the only thing that can make me tear my eyes away from Brianna. Because I have to look at him. I have to show him that he'll never beat me, that he'll never break me or see fear in me. Never.

There are others with him. I don't recognise them, so I guess they must be town kids. They didn't go to Coates, I know that much anyway.

"It's the circle of freaks," Drake calls, waving his hand in our direction like the ringmaster of a circus.

I glare at him and picture being free from my chains, standing up and using my powers to dump the school's outer wall right on his head.

There are six of them, the strangers. Five who are about my age and one small boy holding what looks like a Game Boy. Drake has his gun trained on one of the girls, blonde and pretty, obviously something to the leader of the group from the way he resentfully does as he's told and presses his hands into unset cement.

Their words are a blur to me. I'm too weak to follow what they're saying properly, but I can see them arguing over the second girl. She's as dark as the other one is blonde, not as good-looking but somehow more beautiful, although maybe that's just because she seems to me to have more fight in her than her companion.

"What're they doing?" mumbles Brianna, finally looking up from my tray.

"Concreting more prisoners," I reply wearily, trying to pull my hands up one more time and almost passing out in agony.

I keep thinking that if I was just strong enough to slam my block into hers like I did before then this time one of them might shatter. When I picture it in my head, it's always hers. She'd be gone before Drake knew what happened and he wouldn't even see her leave.

"Dekka. Dekka," she whispers, leaning her head onto my shoulder to get my attention. "Look."

Caine and Diana. Walking across the lawn with more on their minds than enjoying the show. Whoever these people are, they mean something. They're not just another group of freaks.

* * *

The boy Drake forced to put his hands in the cement by threatening the blonde girl is called Sam Temple. I've never heard of him but Caine has. That much is obvious when he struts over and starts congratulating Drake like he's won some great battle or somehow saved the universe from a fate worse than death. All for capturing this boy and his friends. It doesn't make any sense. Which I guess isn't unusual for Caine and Drake so I shouldn't be shocked.

Then everything happens so quickly that it doesn't have time to register. They're arguing but I can't quite hear what they're saying, Drake shoots the boy called Sam in the leg, there's a lot of screaming, shouting and wild gesturing in the direction of the little boy with the game, and then my concrete block vanishes.

The pain in my hands is mind-blowing, but I raise my arms anyway, narrowing my eyes at Caine as he sees we're all free and turns to run. A sapling tree he's sprinting past flies into the air as the gravity keeping it down vanishes, but Caine keeps going and I can't. My arms drop back to my sides and I hear myself cry out. There's another gunshot, a blinding flash of green light and a scream like nothing I've ever heard.

I don't even blink as I watch Drake's arm burn black as he wails in agony. He deserves it. He deserves it for what he did to me and he deserves it for what he did to Brianna.

He runs away like Caine and Diana did and I don't try to stop him. His day will come, but it isn't now, not when I can barely lift my hands. There's no point trying to start a fight I can't win with someone like Caine or Drake when there's a chance I might have a better opportunity later. My father taught me that a long time ago, back before when we were close and the 'L' word was love and not something else.

"He's getting away," Brianna screeches, her voice painfully loud in my ear because she's so close. "Get this off me," she continues, gesturing at the rope that's still tied around her neck.

Her hands are even worse than mine. So tiny and shrivelled and white that they hardly look like part of her. She won't be running anywhere right now. Not that she can see it.

Before I can speak, another one of the strangers, a Hispanic boy with a serious expression and kind eyes, comes over and pulls a knife from his pocket. I raise my hands and from the way he mirrors my gesture in surrender, I know straight away that the Coates kids aren't the only ones to have worked out where the power comes from.

"I'm just gonna cut your ropes," he says evenly. "Then we're out of here. You can come if you want."

I sit forwards so he has no choice but to reach for me before Brianna, just in case he's going to try something. He doesn't, and when he unties me, he's shaking his head.

"This is sick," he whispers softly, almost to himself. "I've never seen anything like this."

"Caine's sick in the head," I reply, staying sat down because Brianna's still leaning against me and I'm not convinced she won't fall over if I move. "And Drake's worse."

"I'll kill him," proclaims Brianna as soon as she's cut loose. "Drake Merwin is going to die."

She jumps up off the bench and starts forwards, obviously expecting her super-speed to be as good as it was before all this. But it isn't. Her hands are too messed up. She's too weak and too hungry. So she falls back and I have to catch her before she hits the ground. I've never known pain like that which shoots up my arms and it's all I've got to stop myself from dropping her.

"You've got balls, girl," says the Hispanic boy. "But you can't go anywhere now. Not like this."

"I can," she snaps, but she's shaking and I know she's hurting as much as I am. "Nobody does this to me and gets away with it. Dekka, let me go!"

"If you want to end up on the floor then fine, I'll let you go. But you're not going after Drake and that's final."

"You can't stop me!"

"Do you want a bet?" I retort, pushing her just far enough away for me to be able to move freely.

Before she can hit the ground, I cancel gravity around her, holding her about a foot up in the air and trying to ignore both the agony and the amount I'm physically shaking with the effort.

"Wow, that's so cool," says the boy.

Then he catches Brianna as my strength runs out and I collapse. When she pulls free of him and stumbles back to me with concern in place of her usual cocky arrogance, it's suddenly all worth it.

* * *

"Give me your hands," says the dark-haired girl who steps out of the shadows in front of us, stopping us from carrying on down the road.

It's the girl who was at Coates with the others who helped us, the one who tried to fight back when Drake was going to cement her hands.

"Why?" I ask suspiciously.

"Because they need healing. Why do you think?" she retorts just as abrasively. "I can leave you to suffer if you want."

I shake my head and mumble an apology. She doesn't know me well enough to be surprised and just shrugs her shoulders.

"No," I tell her when she reaches for me again.

Then I get up and drag a shocked Brianna around me so she's the one in front of the girl who claims she can heal us.

"Dekka!" she exclaims. "Quit pulling me around! My hands still hurt and if they don't get better then I can't run."

The look in her eyes tells me that gaining her freedom has gone some way to helping her get her usual attitude back. It didn't take long. I knew it wouldn't because she's like that. I smile slightly at her and I can see the confusion on her face.

"I yell at you and you smile," she says. "There's something wrong with you, Talent."

I roll my eyes and sigh.

"Heal her first," I say to the town girl, who shrugs and holds her hands out to Brianna, who's still looking up at me, her expression now a different and almost anxious kind of confusion.

"What?"

"She says she can heal people. You saw what she did when that kid got shot as well as I did. Just give her your hands."

She shrugs, winces, and then links hands with the healer girl. We both watch in awe as her old, useless skin is replaced by a new version that's so exactly perfect it's like she never wore the block of concrete.

"What's your name?"

"Lana," she replies, taking a deep breath as she lets Brianna go.

"Thank you, Lana," I say, still not convinced I'm not going to wake up in a minute and find myself still weighed down and powerless.

"I haven't healed you yet," she answers amusedly, extending her hands to me.

Yes, you have, I think to myself as Brianna tears off so fast down the road that she's little more than a blur. You've already healed me more than you could ever know.

* * *

When I reach my hands out to Lana, she changes her mind at the last minute and stretches out towards my head instead. I jump back and she does the same in response. For a second she looks scared, then she looks confused, and finally she settles on angry. And I don't want an angry healer, especially now.

"Sorry," I say, giving her a second apology in the space of a few minutes. It must be a record. "Heal up my hands from the plastering, but leave my head. I want something to remember it by. Please," I add, hoping my manners don't sound like too much of an afterthought.

She takes my hands and heals them like she did Brianna's. Then she stands there watching as I examine them in wonder. She looks tired. I almost ask her if healing wears her out, but she speaks before I can.

"What was all that up at the school?" she asks. "Sam and the others know them because they came down to town and tried to take over there, but I…haven't been around. That kid, he's something else."

"You mean Drake? Or Caine?"

"Both," the other girl admits.

"You saw Caine's power. Drake doesn't have anything like that. He's just a kid, but the most messed up, depraved kid at Coates. Or in the whole world, probably. He does what Caine tells him 'cause it suits him and Caine lets him indulge his not-so-inner psycho. All of us with the concrete, we tried to stand up to them. And some day soon they're going to get what's coming to them because of what they did."

"So you're all freaks?"

"Obviously," I reply. "They did what they did so we couldn't take them down."

"I saw your friend go, so I know what she can do, but how about you?"

I smile at the mention of Brianna and then again when I aim my hand at the ground about twenty feet away from us and it explodes, sending a pillar of dirt up towards the sky and then plummeting back down seconds later.

"Quit showing off, Dekka," teases Brianna as she abruptly appears beside me.

"Says the girl who breezed off at a million miles an hour as soon as her hands were healed," I retort, looking back over her head at the bedraggled group behind us.

"Breezed…" she repeats thoughtfully, making me look back at her again. "I like it. Brianna the Breeze."

"Don't even think about it," I tell her with a firmness I only half mean, but it's too late. She's the type of girl who's probably always wanted to be a superhero, and I can already see the idea forming.

I start to walk forwards again, not really knowing what I'm walking to and not really caring as long as it's away from Coates, but then a boy steps out into the middle of the road. Sam.

Maybe now I'm finally going to get some answers.


	2. Chapter 2

**_I carried on so I thought I might as well share in case those of you who read the first bit wanted to read some more. I'm not going to be ambitious and try to rewrite the whole story from a different POV or anything, but I can't seem to resist gap-filling, mostly because I read the books and pick up hints that make me think they have more of a friendship than is really shown. While I appreciate that not everyone feels the same, I'd love it if Brianna loved Dekka back, but this (more or less) follows canon..._**

By the time we can see the lights of Perdido Beach, the tight formation we'd been walking in has started to drift apart again. Sam's speech about unity and the food we'd had at that grocery store helped bring us together, but now exhaustion's taking over again. My feet hurt from walking so far after spending all that time sitting on a bench with a block of concrete on my hands, and having proper food after going so long without has made me feel sick. Apart from the town kids, only Brianna seems to have any energy left. She darts from one place to another quicker than the eye can see, revelling at having her power back.

"Hurry up, Dekka," she calls as the blur up ahead of me vibrates to a halt and she suddenly becomes clear for me to see. "Honestly. You walk sooooo slowly."

"Not everyone has super-speed, Brianna," I call back, forcing myself to stride forwards a bit quicker to catch up in the hope she'll stay still for a bit and walk with me. I feel stronger when she's there, and I don't want the Perdido Beach kids to see me looking weak. "And you have no patience."

I flick my hand up, aiming at her feet, but she's too fast and is out of range instantly. But she comes back smiling and I look up to see the road widening as we approach the town.

"You'll have to do better than that if you want to get me," she crows, grabbing my arm and trying to pull me along quicker.

"I can't go faster," I confess reluctantly. "My feet hurt and I ate too much too quickly. Unless you want me to throw up, you'll have to go slow."

"That's gross, Dekka," she replies, but she stops pulling me and she doesn't run off.

When we reach the centre of town a short time later, the first place we go to is McDonald's. There's a skinny kid there, walking around and handing out hamburgers, and though I felt sick before, I don't turn one down.

Brianna takes two, and after eating them both without hardly pausing to breathe or chew, she swiftly brings them back up again. I hold her hair back from her face and hand her a glass of water when she's done.

"You were saying," I say pointedly, letting her go and finding several strands of her strawberry-blonde hair entwined in my fingers.

She pouts and opens her mouth to reply, but before she can, the Hispanic kid called Edilio who cut our ropes earlier jumps up on one of the tables. He tells us we're welcome in Perdido Beach and that we can go out and find somewhere to stay as long as we don't chuck any town kids out of their homes. 'We haven't got much,' he says, 'but we've got plenty of empty houses.' I can't help thinking that everyone will have even less soon. The McDonald's hamburgers won't last forever.

"Let's go!" says an apparently recovered Brianna.

She darts through the open doorway and a lot of us follow, obviously a lot more slowly. The first sight that greets me is Sam, Edilio and that blonde girl sitting on the steps outside the town hall. But as I walk towards them, I see Lana. She collapses onto the grass, worn out from healing us, I guess, so I go to her instead.

"Get a blanket or something," I command a younger kid wearing a filthy Coates uniform.

The kid rushes off back in McDonald's and I stop beside the healer, taking my jacket off and putting it under her head like a pillow.

"Help her," I say to the rest of the gathered kids.

Then I walk off into the night, thinking of nothing but finding a warm bed to sleep in. I don't want to get a reputation for being too caring, not in a place like this. That'd just cause me no end of trouble.

The blonde girl on the steps watches me go, but all thoughts of talk and questions are gone. If I don't sleep soon then I'll be passing out on the grass like the healer.

* * *

The house I stumbled into is on Fourth Avenue. Seeing the sign on its outer wall is the last thing I remember of last night before I dragged myself to the back door, forced it open, and then passed out on the floor of the utility room.

I'm still there when I wake up the following morning. Late the following morning.

My head hurts and my back aches from spending a night on the cold stone floor, but what bothers me most is thirst. And that means I have to get up and find water, however much I don't want to.

The kids wandering the street outside are all talking about Sam, Caine and Drake and the weird new kids from Coates who came to town last night. They see my torn and filthy uniform instantly, and though none of them dare to come close, I can feel their eyes following me as I walk. I'm going to have to find myself a change of clothes and be quick about it.

"What are you doing down here?" she says, her voice reaching me a split second before she crashes into me and almost knocks me over. "Sorry," she adds, not sounding the slightest bit sorry at all.

"You need to work on your stopping distance, Brianna," I reply mildly. "And what's wrong with here?"

"A girl like you needs to stay on the nice side of town," she says, bouncing ahead of me like it's a struggle to keep moving at a pace that's normal for everyone but her. "I've found you a house a few doors down from me. There's nobody living in it."

"I've got a house. Back there," I tell her, trying not to smile at the thought she wants me nearby.

"Oh, no," she says immediately as she grasps my wrist and pulls me across the plaza. "This way. You'll see."

She drags me all the way past town hall, past houses way bigger than the one I lived in before I went to Coates, and eventually stops at the corner of what is apparently called Sunset Street. She points across at a house that's neither too big nor too small, with bright shutters around the windows and, perhaps more important to me when I see all the kids running around and doing what they like, a solid-looking front door.

"I even have a key," she says, smirking triumphantly up at me and waving what I'm guessing is the aforementioned key at me. I can't say for sure because her hand moves so fast that it blurs. "So stay there. I've already told everyone it's your house and that they'll end up in orbit if they trash it."

"Thanks for that, _Breeze_," I reply, deliberately making myself sound sarcastic even though I only half mean it.

"Hey!" she retorts, pushing me playfully. "It's not every day a girl gets superpowers. I'm going to enjoy it even if you don't."

"I didn't say I wouldn't enjoy it sometimes," I tell her, and she's so busy trying to tease me into reacting that she doesn't realise what I'm doing until she's about a foot up off the floor.

"Dekka!"

I restore gravity and she's moving almost before she lands. I instinctively fly down my new garden path as fast as my legs will carry me even though I know there's no way she won't catch me.

Predictably, she's waiting on the doorstep with a smug look on her face when I get there. I stop, put my hands on my hips and just look at her. She stares back, and her smile reaches her eyes for the first time since our run in with Drake in the dinner hall.

"Keys," I say, holding my hand out to her.

"What do you say?" she sings back, still smiling.

"Now," I reply firmly, shaking my head in mock disapproval as it suddenly hits me that I've never cared for anyone like I care for her.

Nobody I've ever met could make me feel as many different emotions as Brianna, and for once in my life, my first instinct isn't to block her out and turn her away.

* * *

"They'll come tomorrow evening. I believe Caine needs to defeat me. I think it's an ego thing with him."

That's the first thing Sam says to us as we gather in the church for the so-called council of war. From what I know of Caine, I can't disagree with Perdido Beach's leader. With Caine, everything's about ego.

Then Sam carries on, talking about his fifteenth birthday and Caine's, a date that has taken on new significance for all of us since the coming of the FAYZ. If both of them poof then everything will change, and I'm already not so sure it'll be for the better.

"I'm glad I've got a few years to go," says Brianna, her voice muffled by the sound of some of the others calling words of encouragement to Sam.

"You're lucky," I reply. "I haven't."

"Your birthday's not yet," she says. "When is it?"

"Not yet," I tell her evasively. For some reason I don't want anyone to know. I'm guessing the only people who do are Computer Jack and then Caine and his lot. Jack's sure to have told them everything he knows to save his miserable skin. "But sooner than yours."

She shrugs dismissively. "You're tough, Dekka. You'll be able to fight the poof. Just like Sam's going to."

I'm about to reply when Astrid pointedly clears her throat and glares in our direction. Sam's still talking, confirming the crazy plan that's our only hope of winning.

"Sorry," answers Brianna sarcastically, glaring back. "Pardon me for breathing."

"Let the man finish, Breeze," I say, closing my hand around her wrist to hold her back before I realise what I'm doing.

She pulls away quickly and impatiently. I recoil and move away further along the pew. She must notice because she glances back at me before returning her attention to Sam. When she agrees to pass messages between everyone, to stay right in the middle of the action, I find myself agreeing to go to Coates with Sam. My power is useful, and I'm not the type to run away from a fight.

And if Brianna's involved then so am I. I won't hide while she stands proud. Besides, someone's got to be there to stop her doing something impulsive, brave and utterly stupid.

"What makes Astrid so special?" Brianna asks several minutes later, and I look up to see the blonde girl following Sam back out of the church. "Why's he hiding her and protecting her?"

"He loves her, Breeze," I reply softly. "A person will do anything to protect someone they love."

"That's just stupid," she says, flopping down onto the pew beside me. "Astrid should fight by his side, not hide behind him."

"Some people are the brawn and some are the brains," I answer eventually. "Not everyone can fight. Not everyone wants to."

"But why wouldn't you want to? One day I'll kill Caine and Drake for what they did to us."

"Don't do anything stupid tomorrow, will you? Promise me."

"It depends on what you call stupid."

"Anything that'll get you hurt," I reply immediately.

"You sound like my mom," she says, rolling her eyes and then resting her head on my shoulder as she yawns widely.

"Get up, Brianna. You can't sleep there."

"Can. I'm comfy."

She's snoring softly in a matter of seconds, and I get no response when I call her name. I try to push her but she whimpers and tucks her knees up without waking, wrapping both her arms around the one of mine nearest to her so I can't keep pushing.

"That's the first time I've seen her stay still since you all came down from Coates."

I look up and peer into the shadows, eventually making out a figure standing a short distance away.

"You're Dahra, aren't you?"

"That's me," she replies sardonically, stepping forwards so I can see her face. "Nurse extraordinaire of the FAYZ."

"You should be proud of what you do."

"I am. But that doesn't make it easy."

"I guess nothing's easy now," I say, trying to shift to a more comfortable position without waking Brianna. I needn't have worried because as soon as I move, she moves with me, her breathing pattern barely disturbed. "And it won't get better if Sam poofs tomorrow night."

"Sam won't poof."

"How can you know?"

"I don't. But I have to tell myself he won't because it helps me carry on."

"Fair enough," I reply. What else can I say?

"You're good friends then?" she asks, nodding her head at the oblivious, sleeping Brianna.

"I guess. We nearly starved to death together. Chained up with cement blocks on our hands. It promotes unity," I finish dryly.

"I heard about that. What Caine did is sick."

"Which is why I hope he'll die tomorrow," I reply, snarling at the thought of my former captor and torturer.

"Don't we all," Dahra says, smiling grimly before fading back into the shadows.

Brianna keeps snoring. I keep telling myself I'll wake her up in a minute.

In the end she's the one who wakes me.

The dawn light shines brightly through the stained glass windows.

* * *

I'm shaking as I stand outside the day care. I'm ashamed but I can't help it. I try to tell myself it's anticipation, because I might finally get the chance to have a go at Drake and I've been waiting for this since I left Coates. In a way it is, but I know well enough that I'm scared as well, scared of what I might see on the other side of those doors if we're too late.

Taylor grins with satisfaction as she pops up in front of us, laden down with a tray of uncooked burgers.

"I can do it!" she calls triumphantly, looking past me to Sam, as desperate for his approval as she's been since she met him. "It's going to work!"

"Go on then," I snap as I step forwards, raising my hands and lowering them again even though I really don't need the practice by now. "Get it over with."

Taylor vanishes and seconds later the noise of the snarling, yapping coyotes drifts back towards us.

"Dekka, now!" yells Sam the instant Taylor bounces back out.

My nerves are forgotten as I throw my hands up and the wall of the day care centre visibly shakes. The windows blow out and I can hear Drake bellowing at his unlikely allies, trying desperately to regain control even as he curses me viciously.

I keep my arms raised as Sam steps forwards and blows a hole in the wall as easily as if it were made of tissue paper. The cries of agony from the coyotes fill the air, but to my relief, the screams from the children are those of terror rather than pain.

"Sam, go!" shouts Edilio as soon as he's told those inside the building to duck down, and Sam burns another hole in the wall, much lower this time.

I can see inside now, can see the panicked children prone on the ground amidst the dust and the dirt and the filth. A lot of the coyotes are caught in my force field, some dead and some alive but all spinning around weightlessly.

"OK, Dekka!"

I drop my arms to my sides, restoring gravity instantly. The coyotes crash to the floor and the living scramble over the dead in their desperation to escape. Drake calls after them but his words mean nothing. They might be mutated FAYZ coyotes, but they're still animals. Survival instinct is stronger than anything else.

"Let's go," says Sam grimly, the frustration that Drake got away showing loud and clear on his face. "To the church, Taylor. And you," he adds, glancing back at me.

"Where's Brianna?"

"Wherever she wants to be, I suppose," he replies dryly, shrugging his shoulders. "She's not big on following orders."

"Not always a bad trait in a girl," I reply, matching his tone to hide my concern. "There's no point telling her to stay out of trouble but if you see her then tell her to be careful."

* * *

I object loudly as I walk towards the church, and though it's part of the act, it isn't much of an effort. I trace my finger over the scar on my head and picture Drake in my mind. I don't want to hide, I want to fight. I want him to pay for what he did. I want him to die before he can hurt anyone else.

And when I scan the plaza, Brianna's nowhere to be seen. That doesn't feel right either. If she's out there fighting then I should be as well, no matter what Sam told Caine.

"Everyone find shelter," calls Astrid, waving her arms at people in attempt to shepherd them to where she thinks they should be. "Sam said to get under the pews. Quickly."

I remain stubbornly by the clear part of a stained glass window that looks out onto the plaza, telling myself I'm waiting to see what happens next when I know really that I'm waiting for Brianna. I hear footsteps approaching and the irritated little sigh that accompanies it tells me who I'd see if I turned around.

"Dekka, I think you should take shelter with the rest. The older ones should set an example," Astrid adds in that uppity voice she sometimes has.

I glare back at her, silencing any further attempts to boss me around, and then look back out of the window.

"I'm in the church, aren't I? Nobody said anything about hiding."

"Suit yourself," she replies, and though she sounds pissed off at being dismissed and ignored, she's still Astrid the Genius, so she has the sense not to argue.

Sam's still standing by the fountain in the plaza, watching and waiting like the rest of us. I look away from him, but before I can walk away from the window, a flash I only half see drags my attention back.

"Breeze," I whisper, smiling at the sight of her as she stands there beside Sam, whole and unhurt.

They exchange a few words, and though I'm too far away to see her face clearly, her body language screams sulky reluctance. Sure enough, seconds later she's walking closer, keeping herself to normal pace so she can be seen heading into the church with the rest of us. I have to force myself not to run to the door to meet her.

"What's going on out there?" I ask, closing the door behind her seconds later. "Any sign of Caine? Or Drake?"

"I followed Drake," she says, scuffing the edge of her almost ruined sneaker on the tiled floor. "Back to his house. Sam wouldn't let me kill him. We could go back though. What do you say? You and me. We could go take him out and be back here in five. Or maybe ten. He has to at least suffer a little bit before he dies."

"We can't, Breezy," I reply, taking several seconds to gain enough control of my emotions to be able to stop myself from grinning back at her and reaching for the door. "You heard what Sam said. Bug's out there. The little creep will be watching and Caine will know if we leave. Then the whole plan will be ruined."

"But-"

"I know," I interrupt. "I want him dead as much as you do. But you know we can't."

"I suppose Caine might have something to say about it if the badass sisters leave the church," she replies, smiling up at me and then heading further inside.

"The badass sisters?" I call, following behind her at normal pace, which seems pitifully slow in comparison.

"No one beats the toughest chicks in the FAYZ. And everyone knows that's us," she replies, smiling sweetly at Astrid before sitting on top of the altar and irreverently swinging her legs back and forth.

"Brianna!" she gasps, and the combination of horror and offence on her picture-perfect pretty face is almost comical.

"Breeze," I growl, suddenly aware of how most of the other kids are staring at us. "Show some respect."

Her legs stop swinging but she doesn't move. She stares defiantly back and shrugs her shoulders.

"It's a bit late for that, don't you think?" she retorts, pointedly scanning the ruined chaos that surrounds us.

"It's still an altar," I persist, stepping in front of Astrid so Brianna can't see her. If she can see her she'll only go out of her way to piss her off. "Get down."

"I didn't know you were religious," she says stubbornly.

"In a place like the FAYZ? It doesn't hurt to hedge my bets."

She laughs at that, the sound ringing like a bell around me in a way that seems strange when I think about everything horrific that's going on around us. Then she shrugs her shoulders again and jumps down. I try not to smirk or laugh, which is something made all the more difficult when I turn to see the disapproval on Astrid's face.

"I've got down but I'm not hiding," Brianna announces loudly, and when I sit down on a pew, she sits next to me, her leg so close to mine that I can feel her trembling, not in fear but like she's ready to take off at any second.

I begin to wish we'd gone after Drake. Together.

* * *

The noise of the car screeching into the plaza is soon followed by children's screams as the walls of the church begin to waver and shake around us.

"Caine," I hiss, standing up and bracing myself to go outside and fight back.

The door flies off its hinges and more kids begin to cry. I look for Breeze but she's already gone. I dread to think where.

"Everyone out!" I yell, knowing better than to rely on Astrid for guidance when action is needed instead of thought and planning.

But I'm too late. Caine hits the church twice more, and the second time makes the roof collapse. It rains stone and wood down on us all and there's nothing I can do to stop it.

The last thing I remember is the blow on the back of my head. Just like the first time I felt the full force of Caine's telekinesis. And when I woke from that, it was to find my hands encased in cement.

But just like then, there's nothing I can do about it. Everything goes black, but before it does, my last thought is that at least Brianna got out.

* * *

The first thing I feel when I wake up is pain. But when I try to move, I find my hands are still free. It isn't like before. I can get myself out. It'll hurt, but I can do it.

When I raise my hands and focus my power, the blocks of stone that landed on me begin to move upwards, slowly at first but quickly getting faster and faster. I then turn my hands the other way and raise myself up rather than risk disturbing more of the rubble. However I soon almost wish I'd stayed where I was because the moans of trapped kids reach me as soon as I set myself down at the edge of the ruined building.

Freeing them all is a slow and exhausting process, but I get there in the end. By the time the kid who Astrid put in charge of keeping count of everyone announces that there's no one left to find, I'm exhausted. And I feel even worse when I hear it's all over. I could have helped. I could have stood with Sam when he fought Caine and it might have been over quicker. Then less kids might have been killed by the coyotes. I should have been there. I never should have stayed in the church for so long.

"You can't be everywhere," says a voice from behind me, and I look around to see a very tired-looking Dahra. "You saved a lot of people today."

"Where's Caine?"

"Heading back to Coates, apparently," she replies. "Sam drove him out of Perdido Beach. With a little help from your friend the Breeze."

"What did she do?" I ask, already torn between horror and pride before I even hear the other girl's answer.

"Pointed a gun at Caine and threatened to shoot him," she says flatly as she looks over my shoulder. "If you wait for half a nanosecond then she'll tell you herself."

Sure enough, Brianna skids to a halt a second too late and crashes into me. Yet again. I catch her and set her back on her feet without missing a beat. I guess I'm used to it by now.

When she starts talking her voice quickly gets almost as fast as her feet, and though I assume she's telling me about what happened between Caine and Sam, I soon get lost and give up trying to find the thread of the conversation.

"So anyway," she finishes, finally seeming to pause for breath. "I've got to go…somewhere. But I'll be back later. I'll try to bring chocolate."

With anyone else I'd ask them where in the FAYZ they'd still get chocolate, but with Breeze I know better. She can get to places other people can't. She can go further away from the main town far more quickly than any of us. If it's out there she'll find it, and if she wants to share then I'm not going to argue.

* * *

When I saw Sam a short time later, he told me about Caine and the others running back towards Coates. He told me about what happened with the coyotes and the prees and gave me a thousand other details I simply didn't hear. All I heard was one sentence: Brianna's gone off to spy on them, to make sure they've really gone. I felt sick at the thought of it. Yes, she's fast, but she's not bulletproof. And once Caine gets hold of anyone properly, we both know from experience that it's virtually impossible to get away.

But now she's strolling towards me like she hasn't got a care in the world. And she knows I'm waiting for her. If she didn't then she'd be in front of me already. She's showing off, walking with that swagger she's always had that drives me crazier than she'll ever understand for so many different reasons.

"Hey," she calls, smirking smugly once she's only about a hundred metres away.

She takes off towards me, suddenly little more than a blur, but I'm ready. I flick my wrist and she goes flying, landing hard on the ground and skidding to a halt at my feet. I reach down to lift her up but she yanks her arm away, getting up on her own and then glowering at me with a pout that abruptly makes her look like the child she used to be rather than the young woman the FAYZ has turned her into.

"What're you playing at? What did you do that for?"

"I didn't do anything," I reply calmly, shrugging my shoulders and trying not to smile.

"You did. You did your freaky anti-gravity thing on purpose."

"You know why, Brianna."

"Don't," she replies petulantly.

"Because I need you to understand that you're not invincible. You can't go after Caine and Drake on your own. You can't run off without thinking first."

"I can. They can't touch me. Nobody can touch me."

"I did. Just then."

"That doesn't count. You're you. You wouldn't ever hurt me."

I look down at her, wondering if she knows just how true that is. She grins back, and I notice the spark in her eye a second too late. She vanishes from sight, pushing me first one way and then another, all so quick that I don't have time to react and before I know it I'm sitting on my backside on the dusty ground.

"Breeze!" I exclaim, reaching for her and growling when she jumps back.

"Revenge, Talent. You can't take on the Breeze without payback."

I start to stand up but she flops down onto the ground next to me so I stay where I am. As she passes me half a bar of the promised chocolate, I find myself wondering if this is what real friendship actually feels like.

Before the FAYZ, I wouldn't have known, so crazy though it sounds, maybe there's a part of me that's glad it happened.


	3. Chapter 3

_**For some reason these two won't leave me alone. I'm far too used to writing like myself to be able to write like Michael Grant, who is obviously a much better writer than me, but...*shrugs*...if you're reading then let me know :) **_

_**As ever, canon is happening around this...**_

It's only when I sit in the car I've chosen that I realise it's exactly like the one Dad used to drive when I was a kid. He used to take me out for the day in that car all the time, used to say it was to get me out from under Mom's feet when we both knew it was really so we could spend time together. I miss that man he used to be like a lot of the FAYZ kids miss their parents now, but Dad and I were separated a long time before the wall appeared and we both knew it.

Which is why there's no point thinking about him or the life I had before. I'll never have that life again, whether the FAYZ ends or not.

"Just get on with it, Talent," I tell myself firmly, pushing the key into the ignition with a shaking hand and turning it before I change my mind.

How hard can driving be? If Caine could work it out then I'm sure it can't be beyond me.

"What're you doing?" she asks at the same time as I hear the door open and she appears on the passenger seat.

"I'm teaching myself Advanced Trigonometry out of one of Saint Astrid's textbooks," I reply sarcastically, rolling my eyes at her because I really didn't want company when I did this, not even hers. "What do you think I'm doing?"

"Can you drive?"

"I'm about to find out."

"Can I have a go?"

"What's the point? A car's too slow for you."

"True," she replies, still watching me expectantly.

"_Where_ on Earth did you get those shorts, Brianna?" I ask her, trying to distract her in the hope of getting both of us out of the car before I make a fool of myself.

"One of the empty houses," she replies, pulling at ripped denim that'd only just brush the mid-point of her thighs when she's standing up and certainly doesn't when she's sitting down. "They used to be boot cut jeans. They got in the way when I was running so I got some scissors and…" she adds, nodding towards her lap.

"Well they won't get in your way now," I say pointedly. "So shouldn't you carry on going wherever you were going?"

"I'm going back to Perdido Beach now. So you can drive me," she orders, deliberately and only half-jokingly imperious.

She jumps between the seats and reclines in the back of the car. As I watch her through the rearview mirror, she raises her eyebrows challengingly.

"What?"

"Go on then," she says, smirking. "I'm waiting."

"I'm not your servant, girl," I retort, laughing to myself at how far from the truth that is.

Then I slowly raise the clutch, just like we both knew I would, and the car hops forwards a few feet before stalling completely. This time Brianna says nothing, narrowing her eyes in concentration as she waits for me to try again, and though it takes a few more attempts, in the end we're going along as quickly as Caine and his toadies ever did when they were practicing up at Coates.

"Dekka, go faster."

"How fast do you want to go?" I ask dryly, not changing speed. "This car doesn't do Supergirl speed."

"Try," she replies instantly, leaning forward to wrap her arms around the headrest of my seat until her hands link beneath my chin and her hair brushes against my cheek.

Like I can concentrate on driving now, Brianna, I tell her silently as I move my foot over to the brake and stop the car. She pouts and returns to the passenger seat.

"Why-"

"If I drive the car into town then some kid will trash it. It's got half a tank and someday we might need the gas."

She nods and gets out, vanishes for a minute and then returns.

"There's a gap in the bushes up there. You can hide it."

"I suppose you're good for something then," I tell her with a wicked smirk to match hers.

She grins back at me. "You know it. The whole world knows it," she sings.

"Your ego's swelling more each second. I know that, too."

"You still love me, Dekka."

Yes, Brianna, I do, I say silently to myself as I edge the car forwards in the direction she indicated.

* * *

I walk around part of the town every evening. I have done since we arrived here. Just in case I find something useful, just in case there's a time when I don't have time to get lost.

None of the other kids bother me. They rarely did back at Coates before the FAYZ came and they never do now. I'm intimidating, apparently, or I am according to Brianna when she feels like teasing me anyway. It's quite funny to be called intimidating by the only person in this place who I ever feel intimidated by. Not that I'd ever admit it to her. I'd never hear the end of it. Whatever else I think of her, I know her ego's plenty big enough already.

There's not much going on around here tonight. It's unusually quiet. And I don't like unusual. It puts me on my guard straight away. And that means I'm ready when I both sense and hear a sudden movement behind me. I throw my arm back, cancelling gravity in a space somewhere in the general direction of where the noise came from.

It's happened a few times before, mostly when we Coates kids first came here and people didn't know me. I usually get a scream or a cry of pain from whichever kid was stupid enough to try something and then suddenly finds themselves flying through the air, but I always ignore them and keep walking. Not this time though. It's the indignant 'Hey!' I get in response that makes me turn around so quickly I almost trip over my own feet.

"Breeze! How many times?!" I yell, glaring at her even as she stands there at the edge of a patch of ground that'd been thrown around a second earlier. "Don't creep up on me like that or you'll get hurt!"

"As if you could hurt me," she replies smugly, putting her hands on her hips and pouting back at me. "And I didn't creep. I was looking for you. I didn't want you to miss the party."

"Party?"

"Albert's got a thing going on at McDonalds. I ran through there earlier when he wasn't looking and he's set it up like a nightclub."

"I don't do clubs," I reply, deciding that a massive crowd of kids is the last thing I need or want.

"You do now. Come with me."

"It's fine, Breeze. You go. I'll see you later."

"Oh, no, Talent, you're not getting out of it," she replies instantly, still pouting stubbornly as she steps closer.

I step back, knowing Astrid the Genius would probably have an equation to show how my resistance proportionally decreases according to how close Brianna gets. Breeze couldn't possibly know that, but she senses something anyway, and she's right in front of me before I can take a breath. She stares up at me, unusually silent as if she knows she doesn't need to speak.

"I'm not staying long," I eventually tell her with a sigh. "And I'm not dancing."

"Don't worry, Dekka," she answers, laughing triumphantly as she starts off down the street at normal pace for once. "I'll teach you how."

And just like that, she's done it again. Dekka Talent, even a Dekka Talent with gravity defying mutant powers, is partly terrified by, partly intimidated by, and totally in awe of one seemingly fragile-looking girl who calls herself the Breeze.

* * *

The club's everything I hoped it wouldn't be. Loud music, flashing lights and a big group of kids pushing into each other and generally doing what their parents would never have let them do if the FAYZ hadn't come. My first thought is to turn around and go out again, but then I change my mind and sit down at one of the tables in a corner. None of the others dare to approach and that thought makes me smile despite everything. It's better that way. Intimidation works for me and I'm sticking to it, Coates or no Coates.

"Come and dance," calls Brianna, blurring slightly as she races over and skids to a halt beside my chair.

"Don't even think about it," I tell her firmly, noticing the way her eyes leave mine to settle on my wrist like she's seriously considering trying to drag me off my chair.

"Dekka," she whines. "You can't sit here on your own. That's just sad."

"Then I'll be sad," I reply flatly, trying not to smile. "Leave me alone, _Breeze_."

However the sound of the name she chose for herself obviously reminds her of something because instead of going off to dance like I thought she would, she sits down opposite me and starts telling me a story about a bullet, Computer Jack, and a race.

"Jack shot at you?" I growl, as for some reason my brain only processes that one part of what I heard. "I'll kill him…I swear to God, when I find that boy-"

"No, no," interrupts Brianna before I can get up, shaking her head so quickly that I have to look away and blink several times to shake my own dizziness. "I told him to."

"You told him to shoot at you?"

"Not _at _me, stupid," she says, rolling her eyes before seeming to swell with pride as she explains. "He shot the bullet and I raced it. And I'm faster. The Breeze always wins."

"But what were you doing out with Computer Jack in the first place?"

"I was with him because I knew he'd do whatever I said. He always does."

"I'm sure he does," I interrupt dryly. "I can't imagine why."

She quickly glares back. "I'd have asked you but I knew you wouldn't have done it."

"No, Brianna, I wouldn't. The little voice of reason in my mind would've told me not to shoot you."

"Jeez, for the last time, he didn't shoot me! Weren't you listening? I was faster than the bullet anyway."

She speaks loudly enough for a lot of the other kids to hear, and many of them look around at her with renewed interest. Her eyes light up when she sees them and when they ask her questions and get her to tell the story again, she doesn't object and quickly leaves the table to be closer to her admiring audience.

I don't mind. I just stay where I am and watch her, trying to tell myself I'm still looking out for her when really I know she can look out for herself. It doesn't stop me watching her though, and when she dances, moving many times faster than the beat of the music, I can't tear my eyes away.

She looks back at me a few times, making me dare to think she's reassured by seeing me sitting here, and suddenly the club doesn't seem so bad. I'll put up with the noise and the lights and the crowd because she loves it as much as I loathe it. If I'm with her then it can't be that bad.

* * *

A few days later we're in Albert's club again. She's been here every night since it opened, but it's the first time she's managed to drag me back, the first time even she's been able to distract me from thoughts of mutated worms, harvests and starvation. I can't think of any of that now though. All I can think of is that creep Zil interrupting her dancing, of me interrupting their argument before they came to blows.

I wasn't worried for her. She was right when she said she could slap him down in the time it'd take him to take a breath. But I was worried by what she might do without thinking. Because if she really hurt him then there'd be consequences. And since all this happened, the only thing I know for sure is that I can't lose her.

But then Jack came along, making eyes at her like a faithful puppy when I know all too well that he's neither canine nor the slightest bit loyal to anyone but himself. Except perhaps whatever computers are still working. He feels more for machines than he could ever feel for her, and though I still lie by telling myself otherwise, that's the main reason why I loathe him with a passion and think I always will.

However in the end he went off with another kid, brushing aside what I want more than anything else in the world like both she and her gesture of asking him to stay mean nothing. The rejection means something to her though. It hurts more than she'd ever admit. I can tell by the way she hides behind her usual bravado and tries to embarrass him.

He might as well not have heard her for all the attention he paid, and by the time he left the club without looking back, I didn't know if I was angry at him for leaving her or angry at her for wanting him to stay.

"Dekka, why are you mad?" she asks, finally noticing my reluctance to join in the conversation after several minutes of me barely saying a word and trying not to look at her.

I ignore her again, turning away to watch the other kids dancing.

"Dekka!" she yells, making those nearest to us turn around and stare.

"What're you looking at?" I snarl at them, and they quickly look away again. I sigh deeply. "You always have to pick a fight with everyone, Brianna," I tell her, still looking at the table because I know I'll cave in if I look at her. "Why can't you just try to get along? Why do you have to be the centre of attention all the time? It just gets you into trouble."

"I like trouble," she replies flatly.

Her tone makes me lift my gaze, and as I knew she would be, she's sitting there grinning back at me, her hands fisted in the fabric of that ridiculous blue dress.

"Well I don't," I snap, belatedly realising I sound like more of a child than she does. "Just go dance, Breeze."

"Don't want to now," she says, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting.

"I'm sure Jack will be back soon enough."

She stares unblinkingly back at me for several seconds, her expression so unusually serious that I don't think I could look away even if I wanted to. Then she sticks her tongue out and smiles widely.

She's left the chair before I register that she's moved. Part of me wishes I had it in me to go after her.

* * *

Fear and stupidity killed Harry. And it'll probably kill Hunter as well before long. It all comes down to fear in the end. Fear or envy or lack of understanding, or usually a combination of all three. That's why so many people hate those who are different to them. And I know more about that than most. Sometimes I think I must have done something bad in a former life. Not only did God see fit to make me black and a lesbian, now he's gone and made me a freak as well. And I can't change any of it even if I wanted to. Which I don't, really, so I don't know why I'm whinging. Maybe because my life would be easier if I could.

"Hi, Breeze," I say as I walk down the steps out of what used to be Hunter's house and she appears in front of me. She's got new sneakers again. They're not hers. They're pink, and Brianna doesn't do pink.

"Sam in there?" she asks, quickly looking me up and down before vanishing into the house when I tell her he is.

She reappears a few minutes later, annoyed and distracted.

"I told Sam about Caine being at the power plant and he's more worried about Antoine hitting Astrid."

"What?"

"Caine! He's up there right now. And Sam won't give me a gun," she snarls. But then her expression turns thoughtful. "Have you got a gun?"

I shake my head emphatically. I haven't, but even if I had then I wouldn't give it to her. Not when I know how much trouble she'd go and get herself into if I did.

"Go get the others. I'll get Sam and we'll meet you by the road to the power plant."

"That's what Sam said to do."

"Do it then," I say, trying not to smile. "You can't be Super Breeze if you're dead."

"I wouldn't die," she snaps bad-temperedly. "Why does everyone think I'd die if I fought Caine? He'd be the dead one. He still will be."

"Just do what I said, Breeze. Please. The sooner we get there, the quicker we can do something. So go. Quickly."

"I can do quick," she replies, jumping forwards and pushing me before zooming away.

I sigh and turn back to the house. I try not to look at Harry's body when I get inside. I try not to think of what this has probably started. But I can't stop. I know all too well what it's started. Moofs against normals. Because people just can't exist together without some kind of conflict. Not even in the FAYZ. Especially not in the FAYZ.

* * *

After I got her off the roof, her last words before she left me and raced back towards Perdido Beach were 'I'm going back to town to get Sam and the others. Then Caine and Drake are going down.' She believed it as well. Of course she did. She's Breeze. Crazy, brave, reckless Breeze, who charges from one fight to the next without thinking of the risks or the consequences. It didn't seem so straightforward to me though, not when Sam left me here with no more company than a couple of children and a very surly Orc.

That's why I wasn't at all surprised when it all started to go wrong. It's my own fault though. I dropped my guard. I gave Drake the chance to come at me and he took it. If it wasn't for Orc then I'd be dead. And that's a scary thought. I never thought I'd owe my life to Orc.

I don't have much chance to think about it though, because I haven't even got to my feet when Sam and Edilio race up and start asking me about collapsing mineshafts. There's something about their expressions that makes me suspicious and not a little bit nervous, but I go along with it anyway. I'm a lot of things but I hope I'm never a coward.

But then the closer we get, the harder it gets to keep going. I can't begin to understand what it is that's down there in that mine, but it's bad. Every fibre of my body screams at me, begging me to run. I don't. I keep going even though I don't really know what I'm here for besides using my power to collapse a cave. Maybe that makes me brave. Maybe it just makes me stupid. But maybe it's what Breeze would do, and if I think of her then the darkness that surrounds me fades a little.

I wonder what she'd feel if I didn't come back. Then I wonder if I'd want to know. I'm not so sure I would, so it's probably just as well I never could. All I can really hope for is that it doesn't come to that.

* * *

When I wake, the first thing I remember of what happened is Lana, standing in the entrance to the mineshaft and shooting Edilio. He'll be dead by now, I'm sure of it. But then I was sure I was dead as well. But I'm not. Or at least I don't think I am.

I should be. I remember Drake, screaming death threats at me from ten feet in the air before I restored gravity and let him plummet to the floor. Then I remember the coyotes. They were too quick for me. There were too many of them. I should be dead. I don't understand why I'm not. Or maybe I am and I just don't know it.

"Dekka? Can you hear me, Dekka?"

I hear a distant groan that I suppose must be my reply. It takes me a few tries but eventually I manage to associate a name with the voice and repeat it. Sam.

A hand closes gently over mine, holding me still as I try to get up and away from the firmer hand pressed to my side. I can hear someone else groaning, crying in pain. Everything's still too fuzzy for me to place the distorted voice, but I somehow know I have to open my eyes. I have to get up. I have to do something, anything to stop that pain.

"Dekka, you have to stay still so Lana can heal you properly."

"What happened?" I ask, squinting up at Sam. "Is it over?"

"It's over. The mineshaft's collapsed. But Duck's dead."

"The gaiaphage?"

"Buried under there," he replies, gesturing back towards what I guess is the mine.

I open my mouth to ask him something else but the crying gets louder and suddenly I know her. Brianna. After that, neither Lana nor Sam can hold me for long. None of the others even try.

"Don't touch her," snaps the Healer as I see Brianna curled up on the ground and stumble shakily to her side, reaching for her without hesitation. "She's got radiation sickness. You can't go near her. Get back."

"Can you heal her?" I reply, fighting back the urge to tell her that I don't care about myself when I can see Brianna in so much pain. I don't move back even an inch.

"We'll soon find out," says Lana, sitting on the floor and lifting Breeze's head onto her lap with a lack of concern for herself that doesn't entirely surprise me.

I stare at Brianna's face the whole time, watching as the expression of total agony fades to leave only peace and stillness behind. I'm so used to her never being still and she's so pale anyway that she almost looks dead like that. I ignore Lana's warning and take her hand in both of mine. Her skin's still warm, and when I squeeze, she squeezes back.

"I thought you were dead," she says, her eyes opening instantly like I've just disturbed her nap and nothing more. "You looked dead. I wanted to kill Caine. Sam wouldn't let me."

"What's Caine got to do with it?" I ask, glancing around at the others. "It was Drake I was fighting. I'd have had him if it wasn't for the coyotes."

"Caine was here, too," answers Lana when Breeze doesn't.

"Oh," I reply lamely, not knowing what else to say when nobody looks in a fit state to answer questions and I don't really feel up to asking them.

Lana shrugs her shoulders, trying to hide the pained, tense look that drifts across her features and failing. She sees me watching, sees I've noticed, and starts to get up. She lifts Brianna's head up and slides out from underneath her. Brianna moans, clearly not as restored as she'd have us all believe.

"I have to go treat Sam," says Lana, supporting Brianna's head with one hand and gesturing impatiently for me to take her place with the other.

"Hey," Breeze whispers as Lana moves away and she settles her head on my lap instead of the Healer's. "I'm happy you're not dead."

"So am I," I tell her dryly. "How are you feeling?"

"Like crap," she replies bluntly. "But I'll live."

"Good," I say, and I've never meant anything more.

After a few minutes she jumps to her feet and races back towards town without a word. She moves too fast for me to watch her go, but I stare in the direction she went and watch the dust settle in her wake, missing the weight of her head on my leg. I should get up, I know that, but when I try I can only manage to shuffle the short distance to the nearest tree and lean back against its trunk.

I can barely keep my eyes open and soon give up trying, but the roar of a car engine quickly changes that. One door opens and Astrid jumps out, eyes only for Sam, but then when the other door opens I hear a dog barking and Patrick dives out, heading straight for Lana.

Brianna shuts the door behind him and I let myself smile at the sight of her because I know no one's watching me. People say she's selfish and arrogant, and she is, but not all of the time. Sometimes she's so much more, and when I close my eyes again, my mind is filled with the image of her. Alive. Healthy. And that's enough for me, enough to make me start to forget the coyotes and make me carry on. For her.

"Dekka, get up," she says, impatiently kicking the outside of my thigh with the toe of yet another ruined sneaker. "We're going back to town."

I ignore her and she only kicks me harder.

"Dekka!" she whines, dragging the last syllable of my name out until it turns into a yelp when I grab her ankle so she can't keep kicking me. "Everyone's leaving. In the car. If you don't come now then you're walking, girl."

"Whatever," I reply tiredly, but even as I do, I'm already starting to get up.

She smiles smugly down at me. I never could refuse her and she knows it.

* * *

"Can't we just go get him?" she asks, staring up at the fence panel that's covered with a giant painted 'HC' sign. "Nobody cares about the stupid little creep. If we take him out then most of the kids here will call it justice."

"Zil might be a stupid little creep, but we can't all be vigilantes forever. If Sam says no then we have to leave it."

"Who died and made Sam the king?" she asks, but I can see she regrets it before the words even leave her mouth so I say nothing. "What's a vigilante?" she continues, looking almost embarrassed that she has to ask.

"Someone who takes the law into their own hands," I reply, shaking my head when her question reminds me how young she still is.

"Then that should be me. This fence is at the end of _my _backyard," she complains, staring up at the graffiti like it's a personal insult. "The paint doesn't come off. And I'm not standing here trying to wash it. That'll just look worse."

"Give me the paintbrush, Breeze," I say, reaching for it and rolling my eyes.

I crouch down and pull the can of paint closer. She stands behind me as I paint, and by the time I'm finished, her scowl has become a beaming smile that makes stealing the paint, finding the brush and bringing both up here all worth it.

"HC SUCKS," she reads, laughing delightedly. "So much better."

Then she takes the brush off me and dips it in the black paint. Seconds later, I'm the one looking up at the fence.

"BREEZE RULES," I read, smiling even as I try to look stern. I take the brush off her and pretend to start writing on the panel. "And has an ego bigger than the entire FAYZ…" I continue, trailing off when she pushes me and then sprints off down the alley before I can retaliate.

* * *

A day later, I'm standing at the edge of the cabbage field, waiting to hear about Sam's, or I should say Astrid's, latest plan to bargain with the zekes. Astrid, Albert and Edilio stand close to Sam, with Howard and Orc a short distance away. Quinn stands on a truck, wearing long rubber boots and trying not to stand on any of the blue bats that surround him. Until now, I've been scared to ask any details, but I know I can't put it off for much longer. Besides, if I'm thinking about that then I might not have to think about Computer Jack.

Despite everything he's done, the little traitor is still with us, standing at the other side of Breeze like he's earned the right to be there. He hasn't, and though I say nothing, it gives me great pleasure to glare at him more than enough to make him look distinctly uncomfortable.

"So what's with the bats?" I ask finally.

"Astrid has a great theory," says Sam, almost as if he knows me well enough to know I won't listen if he doesn't declare his support first. "Basically, if they eat the bats then they won't eat us."

"And how exactly are we going to test this theory?"

"See if they eat the bats, then if they do, we send Orc out at the same time and see if they let him take the cabbages."

I nod, seeing the logic because it's not like they can hurt Orc when he's mostly made of stone and gravel. But there's something about the way Sam's looking at me that makes me nervous.

"Then what?" I ask suspiciously.

"Then I take a bat and see if the zekes want a piece of me," answers Brianna.

"Then we'll know for sure," finishes Sam.

"Don't think so," I retort immediately. "What happens if they decide Breeze is a bit more appetising than bat?"

"Then I run, _Mom_," Brianna replies, rolling her eyes and putting her hands on her hips like she's getting ready for an argument. "The Breeze is much faster than the zekes."

"I'll do it instead," I say, trying to decide how long I can trap her in a field of anti-gravity for and whether or not it's long enough for Sam to find someone else to test his girlfriend's zeke-bat-theory.

Breeze laughs. "You can't freaky-gravity-thing the whole field, Dekka. And you're not fast enough. Just chill. It'll be fine."

"It'd better be. Or I'll kill you."

"You don't want me to die so if I do die then you'll kill me? Dekka, you're crazy, d'you know that?."

I shake my head but don't reply, and in the end Sam breaks the silence, betting with Astrid that her theory doesn't work. I hope it will. For more than one reason.

* * *

I'm sure I stop breathing for the whole time there are people in the cabbage field, first when Orc goes in because I almost want it to fail, knowing that if they attack him then Sam won't send Breeze, and then again when it doesn't and she goes in. However only a few seconds later she's throwing cabbages back at us, and before I know it she's skidding to a halt in the middle of our group. I catch her without thinking, trying to ignore the smug smile and the way she directs it at Jack as much as at me.

"This would go great with some roasted pigeon," I say, reaching for one of the cabbages.

"Later," she replies. "We have something we have to do first," she adds in a stage whisper, glancing across at Sam.

I sigh and nod, heading towards the boat. It's an effort not to glance back at her. But then it's an effort not to use my powers to send Jack crashing into the FAYZ wall as well. I don't have to look back to know he's by her side, creeping into her life because he's got himself a crush on Supergirl.

The worst thing is that I can't say anything. If I do then she'll ask me why I'm so bothered. And if she does that then I might just tell her the truth. Then I'll probably lose her forever.

I keep walking.

* * *

"Everybody listen!" calls Astrid, rapping her tightly clenched fist on the thick, heavy wood of the table. "We won't get anywhere if everyone speaks at once!"

I resist the urge to point out that we never get anywhere even if we take turns, and instead sit deeper into my heavily padded chair and wait for them to sort themselves out. The Temporary Council of Perdido Beach. What a joke that is. We've had far too many of these meetings already and I don't think a decent decision or lasting rule has come out of any of them.

"So…" Astrid continues, now neatly folding her slender pale hands on the table in front of her. "We're here tonight to discuss Zil Sperry and the so-called Human Crew-"

"What's to discuss?" I snap, scowling back at her. "Those of us who can should go to Fourth Avenue and take them down. Before they hurt anyone else. Breeze said she'd come with me."

"Of course she did," replies Astrid acidly. "Any excuse for a fight and Brianna's there."

"At least she does something," I retort, refusing to let the insult go unnoticed because she isn't here to defend herself. Not that she'd take it as an insult, but that so isn't the point. "You'd have us all sitting here and talking while the whole town crashes down on top of us."

"We can't go on without rules and order, can we?" she answers, looking around at the others as if she's hoping to find an ally.

"Zil's broken all the rules of morality and decency," I say. "How can you defend him after what happened in the plaza?"

"She's not defending _him_," replies Albert, speaking for the first time. "She's saying we can't all go around delivering our own justice whenever we feel like it."

"'Cause that would be bad for business, wouldn't it, Alberto?" says Howard, and from the looks on everyone's faces, I can see it's all going to kick off again any second.

"Shall we just vote?" interrupts Sam, and just like always, everyone stops to listen to what he has to say.

"Vote on what?" I ask, not quite able to inject my usual venom into my voice when I'm talking to one of the few people I genuinely respect.

"If we leave Zil and his dudes to get on with what they're doing or if we shut them down and lock them up."

"Shut them down and lock them up," I reply instantly. "This has gone on for too long already."

"No," says Astrid just as quickly. "We keep working until we have a proper system of justice and then if he's still causing trouble, we bring Zil to trial. Properly."

"Sorry, Astrid," says Sam. "But after what happened with Hunter, and what Zil could have done to you and LP, we can't ignore it."

Then Albert sides with Astrid and it quickly becomes very obvious where the vote will go. John Terrafino sides with Astrid and Howard soon does the same. Though Edilio joins Sam in supporting me, it's too late by then and it doesn't matter.

I look at the door because I know Brianna's out there. I want nothing more than to get up off this chair, go to Fourth Avenue with her and send Zil into orbit. No matter what the council says. A part of me I don't like very much wonders what they'd do about it if I did defy them. Only Sam could do anything to stop me and he was on my side in the vote.

* * *

It's the early hours of the morning so I shouldn't be awake, but that doesn't mean I can sleep properly with the noises of the FAYZ all around me. I can hear kids out on the street even now. It's probably Zil and his idiotic friends, and I think for the millionth time today that it's all Astrid's fault they're still out there causing trouble in the first place. It's too late to punish them for what went on with Hunter, that's what she says. And there are no laws in place to give him a proper trial. Rubbish, if you ask me. I could give him a proper trial with one flick of my hand.

The Human Crew are a hate group, bullies and nothing more. They don't even have Caine's intelligence or Drake's sadistic evil to make them stand out from the crowd. Breeze and I could wipe out their little hideout in seconds, but of course Saint Astrid won't let us. She's a normal with a freak boyfriend, so I suppose it doesn't mean a lot to her. She has the best of both worlds.

I scowl at the thought of her and turn over to go back to sleep, but another crash makes me instantly alert again. My first thought is that it's coming from inside the house and my second is that even Zil wouldn't be stupid enough to take me on like this. My third is the realisation that it isn't Zil at all. And that's about at the same time as she appears in front of me, silhouetted in the window for a split second before she pulls the sheets back, curls up beside me and then pulls them back down over both of us.

"What're you doing? It's the middle of the night," I manage eventually, my voice still groggy with sleep. She kicks her shoes off and her feet are like blocks of ice against my calves. "Breeze?"

"Can't sleep," she mumbles, her cocky arrogance gone for the first time in a long time. "You don't mind, do you?"

I shake my head, unable to find words for what feels like all eternity before I eventually stammer a no in reply.

"Didn't think so," she answers, and my heart skips a beat as I think she might have worked it out all by herself. But then she carries on and I don't know whether to be relieved or disappointed. "Nobody can resist the Breeze."

"Or she'll suffocate them with her arrogance?"

She says nothing but kicks me instead. I'd float her on the ceiling in a ball of anti-gravity just to remind her that I can, but she chooses that moment to shuffle even closer and tuck her head under my chin so I do nothing. She's gone quiet again, and if I'm honest then I know there's something bothering her. She wouldn't be here like this otherwise.

"I don't want to get sliced up by wires, Dekka," she whispers eventually, just when I think she's gone to sleep. "I don't want to die like that."

"Then you should think before you go breezing off," I reply sternly, more because talking to her like that is safe than because I want her to change a part of her I've always loved.

"Whatever, _Mom_," is her muffled answer, and I smile to hear it even though I know what it means.

The sass is back, and that means she'll soon be gone. Brianna the Breeze doesn't show fear or doubt, and I spend the next few hours waiting for her to leave.

However she doesn't leave. She falls asleep by my side, snoring softly against my shoulder like she did when we were prisoners at Coates. The dawn light is shining through the window and she's still here. If only she knew the truth and she stayed then…

But I change my mind about telling her how I really feel virtually immediately. If she rejects me then I have nothing. Right now, I have everything, even just for a while.

She stirs and sits up in one movement so quick that one second she's asleep and then the next she's looking down at me with a confused expression on her face. Then she smiles.

"Feeling better?" I ask her tentatively, not sure she'll want to admit to the reason she's here, if she'll want to admit she was scared.

She nods. "Thanks."

Then she starts to get up, for once moving slowly enough for me to grasp her arm.

"Why were you thinking about the wires again, Breeze?"

"Zil. He had his toadies put them up after I went to see what they were up to last time. But it doesn't matter. I'm too smart for them now."

She smiles again, blurs and is gone before I can blink. But I don't blink. I stare straight ahead unseeingly, thinking of only one thing as my hands rest on the part of the bed she's kept warm. Astrid or no Astrid, Zil's days are numbered. Hell, Zil's hours are numbered. The first chance I get, that pathetic excuse for a human being is going down. Nobody threatens Brianna and gets away with it. Ever.


	4. Chapter 4

_**MyGreatnessHasArrived120 asked for another chapter, and as I found this on my laptop the other day, I thought I might as well post it. Say hi if you read, and if any of my 'old' friends from the Hunger Games fandom are still out there then I'd love to hear from you. I'm back after a bit of an absence and **_**might**_** be looking for something new to write...**_

_**As ever with this, it fits around canon...**_

I push the back door open, catching it before it can slam against the wall. I take a step inside and then wait a second. Nothing happens. She's not here. If she was then she'd have heard me and she'd already be standing next to me.

But there's someone here. I can hear him coughing upstairs. There's a loud crash and I wonder what he's broken this time. Then as I climb I decide that if he touches her then it'll be his head breaking instead of this house.

He looks quite pathetic really, curled up on an armchair with a blanket wrapped around himself. He looks like a child, like the snivelling little coward I remember from Coates. In my head I can picture him crawling along behind Drake and Caine like it was yesterday. Every time I see him, I see that. The others might have forgotten but I haven't.

"Well if it isn't Traitor-, sorry, I mean _Computer _Jack."

"Dekka," he splutters. "What're you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same."

"I'm staying with Breeze for a bit. I'm sick and I don't want to be on my own."

"She's cute, too, isn't she, Jack? And the whole Supergirl thing makes her even cuter, doesn't it?"

"I… I… We haven't, you know…done anything. I'm just staying here."

"Staying here?" I repeat, taking a step back as seeing all Brianna's stuff scattered about the room abruptly makes me conscious of what I'm doing and think about how I'd explain it to her.

But then it's too late. She appears in the middle of the room at virtually the same time as the front door slams shut behind her. Jack looks at her, looks at me and then looks back at Brianna properly, gawking at her like he thinks she can't possibly be real in a way that almost makes me sympathise because I know exactly how it feels. Or at least would make me sympathise if he wasn't a pubescent boy whose mind is probably as filthy as the post-FAYZ sewers. When his eyes meet mine again, Jack sees something in them that makes him turn and run, coughing and spluttering down the landing into one of the other rooms.

"Jack! Dekka?" Brianna asks confusedly, staring after Jack and then turning back to me. "What's up? Something going on at town hall?"

I shake my head. She looks disappointed.

"I came to…to check you're okay."

"Why wouldn't I be? The Breeze is always okay."

"Good," I reply, already taking the coward's way out and moving towards the door. "I'll go back to my house then."

"Wait," she says, and my traitorous heart races just a little bit quicker.

"Yeah?"

"I'm going out again. To see if anything's going on outside."

"It isn't," I reply, still hovering in the doorway.

"It might be," she retorts with a grin. "Come with me?"

"Out to pick a fight? No way."

"Pick a fight? Me?" she replies, smiling up at me with a sweetness that doesn't even come close to convincing me because I know better. "I'm not that kind of girl."

"Yeah, right, Breeze. And I was head of the school cheerleading squad before the FAYZ came," I reply, amusedly sarcastic.

"Did you have the uniform and everything?" she asks, and she laughs when I roll my eyes at her. "Come on, it'll be fun."

"OK," I tell her with a sigh and a pretence of reluctance that couldn't be further from the reality of what I'm feeling. "If I must."

"You must."

"Because you say so? Does the whole world have to do what Brianna says?"

"Yes," she answers flatly. "Starting with you."

"You're not the boss of me, girl. Maybe I want to go home."

"But you don't. I know you. You get bored if you're doing nothing."

"Don't start with the logic, Breeze. It doesn't suit you."

"I could beat you down in less than a second, you know that, right?"

"Bring it on," I reply, smiling and widening my stance so I block the doorway.

"Not in my house, Dekka," she says, smiling back and pushing past me, grabbing the side of my jacket as she goes and dragging me around towards the staircase. "It's bad enough having Jack here trashing it without you cancelling gravity and totally destroying it."

"Outside then?"

"Outside. You're so gonna lose."

I roll my eyes and follow her outside, knowing she'll have moved back on to whatever she wanted to go out for in the first place by the time we get there. As I watch her dance down the garden path, all I can think is that I already lost a long time ago.

* * *

"Dekka! Dekka, are you in there?! You missed the council meeting! They sent me to get you!"

She appears in the middle of my bedroom casually, almost like it's her own, and she barely pauses for breath before she carries on.

"Saint Astrid's so pissed at you! She ranted about responsibility for _ages_ and she looked like she was even thinking about swearing. You should have seen her, Dekka. But then I guess she wouldn't have been ranting if you'd been there… Dekka? Are you even listening to me? Dekka?"

"Brianna, you should go," I tell her, forcing the words out when I really want to keep her here with me so I'm not alone. I look at my watch again. "You shouldn't be here."

"Why not?" she replies stubbornly, moving closer instead of further away. "You've never thrown me out before."

And I don't want to now. The last thing I'd ever want is to drive her away. But I have to. She doesn't need to see this.

"Leave me alone," I growl. "Get out! Now!"

"Make me," she snarls back, making me want to smile at the same time as I curse myself for forgetting how she never backs down.

But then she stops. Just stops dead and almost seems to fade.

"Happy birthday, honey," says another voice from behind me, and it sounds very different to how it did when I heard it last.

"Dad?"

I turn around and he's there. He's smiling, like he used to before, back when the man who hit me and sent me away to Coates didn't exist even in my wildest nightmares.

"It's okay," he continues, reaching his hand out to me. "I love you. What happened is in the past, Dekka. Come with me and we can start again. We can be a family again, just like before."

He walks around me, and then he's standing in front of Brianna. Brianna. She's still there, her anger gone and replaced with something I can't work out right now. Brianna. It doesn't matter that she doesn't know what I feel. Her not knowing doesn't stop me feeling. And that means she's still a living, breathing reminder of everything about me that my father despises and could never forgive.

"We can't, Dad. You hit me. You sent me away. You hate me."

"I hate what you are, Dekka. That little bit of you. But I still love you. You're my daughter and we can work it out. I promise. Let's get you out of here."

He reaches for me and I start to reach for him, but Brianna's still standing there. Even if I did believe my dad, I'd still stay for her. Who else is going to stop her doing something stupid and getting herself killed? Who else is going to look out for her?

"No. I have to stay here. I want to stay here."

"Come with me! Now!" he shouts, his face contorting with rage as he raises his hand to me again.

I shake my head and reel back. As I do, Dad transforms into something else. It glows green, like that thing in the mineshaft that was there during the night that still haunts my nightmares.

"Soon," it hisses, and then it vanishes.

Abruptly everything's the right colour again, and then I'm flying backwards, crashing to the floor with my arms full of Brianna. She hugs me tightly and then jumps up, almost embarrassed by the strength of her reaction. Between what just happened with my almost-poof and her, I look at the floor because I don't know what to think.

"Why didn't you tell anyone it was your birthday?" she asks, hands on her hips as she stares accusingly down at me. "You should've said something."

"It's my business. What would they have done anyway? Got me some balloons and a cake?"

"I'll forgive you because you stayed," she says, carrying on like she didn't hear me. "But I'd never have forgiven you if you'd left, Talent. You're the second toughest chick in the FAYZ, after me, obviously. You couldn't have let the side down and poofed."

"Poofed isn't even a word," I tell her grouchily, slowly getting to my feet and letting her drag me towards the door.

"It is now," she replies. "And I'm taking you to town hall."

"I'm not justifying myself to Saint Astrid."

"Sam and Edilio were worried about you," she says. "God knows why. I told them nobody's stupid enough to take you on, but did they listen? Of course they didn't. If everyone listened to the Breeze then there'd be a lot less stress around here."

She carries on talking for virtually the whole time it takes us to get to town hall, walking at my pace not hers. For once I'm glad that I'm not as quick as she is.

* * *

"Shouldn't you be taking Jack's temperature and making sure he doesn't have his next dose of cough medicine too early and die of an overdose?"

She glares down at me from where she sits on the wall that surrounds the plaza. Then she jerks her head sharply in the direction of town hall.

"What was all that about?"

"Nothing," I reply quickly.

I turn and start to walk away, but I don't know why I bothered trying. A second later she's standing in front of me, hands on hips and with that determined, stubborn expression on her face that she has when she's not planning on taking no for an answer.

"Go away, Breeze. I'm tired and I can't talk about council business."

"Says who? Astrid? Rules are made to be broken. Tell me."

I shake my head and keep walking, sidestepping her only for her to be in front of me again instantly. I try again, cursing her super-speed under my breath. And that fierce stare. It works better than puppy-dog eyes on me, and she knows that even if she doesn't truly understand why.

"Dekka!"

"No, Brianna. No."

"Why? What's so bad you can't tell me? And I'm not Taylor. I won't tell anyone else."

I attempt to walk past her again but she doesn't let me even take a step this time. She moves with me, reacting so fast it almost feels like she's reading my mind to find out which direction I'm going in so she knows before I even start.

I sigh deeply, silently thanking God that she can't actually read my mind, and then turn my hand so my palm faces her feet. She cries out indignantly when she begins to float upwards, unable to run with no solid ground beneath her, and then she yells furiously at me as I skirt around my force field and continue heading home. But then I reach the corner and I have to release her. I don't have enough control when I can't see what I'm doing properly and I might hurt her. I'd tell her anything before I risked doing that.

"Don't do your freaky gravity thing on me!" she shouts as she skids to a halt in front of me a split second after I let her go. "It's not fair."

"Not fair?" I retort, trying desperately not to smile. "Says the one using her freaky superspeed thing to harass a girl who's just trying to go home."

"I'm not _harassing _you. I want answers. And I won't leave you alone until I get them."

"Counts as harassment to me," I reply mildly, hating the part of me that resolves to tell her nothing just so she won't go back to Traitor Jack.

"Fine, I'm harassing you. I don't care. Now tell me what you were talking about at the council meeting."

She narrows her eyes at me then, before stepping forwards and reaching her hand up to my head. She pulls a small piece of blue fabric from my hair and holds it out so I can see it. It must have got there when I was sorting through the boxes in the basement in search of a change of clothes earlier. She laughs, and when I scowl at her, she only laughs louder.

"I can't believe nobody told you."

"I think people had more important things to think about," I reply, grouchy because I don't let people laugh at me.

"Such as…?"

"We were talking about Orsay, all right? About this mad prophecy thing. About whether it's rubbish or not. And if you breathe a word then I'll kill you."

She smiles and then mimes zipping her lips closed. Predictably, it doesn't last.

"Is it rubbish?"

"I don't know, Breeze," I whisper, suddenly all out of lies. "How can any of us possibly know?"

* * *

"Lana will be here soon," whispers a voice I just about identify as belonging to Dahra. It's accompanied by a cool hand on my forehead that I haven't got the strength to pull away from. "Stay there and don't even think about moving."

I cough again and the whole bed shakes. I don't think I've ever felt so exhausted, and the pain coming from the burn on my hand only adds to my misery. But when I remember how it happened, how the fires that threatened to sweep through the whole of Perdido Beach trapped so many kids in their houses, I can't bring myself to protest. Inside my head, I can still hear them screaming.

"A lot more would have died if you hadn't done what you did," says Dahra as she pulls her hand away.

"How…did you…"

"-know what you were thinking?" she says, finishing my question when I can't. "I can see the pain on your face, Dekka. It isn't just because you're sick. And I know more about you than you think I do. You care more than you let on."

I start to shake my head in denial but it hurts too much so I settle for turning over to face the wall. She sighs and pulls the thin and torn blanket over my shoulders.

"I'll come back when Lana gets here."

I don't know how much time passes after that. The basement of the hospital is always dark and there are no windows so I can't look out at the sky. I should move, I know that, but I can't. It's so much easier and less painful to stay exactly where I am. And nobody is bothering me here.

Or so I thought. But then I hear movement outside the door and I know things are about to change. Hopefully it's Lana. Then at least my hand wouldn't hurt anymore. But Lana doesn't have the flu, and judging from the frantic coughing I can hear, the person outside definitely does.

The door swings open but I haven't got the strength to turn around to see who it is. The way I feel right now, I think one of the prees from the day care could beat me in a fight, so if they're here to attack me then they can go right on ahead.

The person coughs again, but it doesn't sound like a normal cough. It's speeded up, and is quickly followed by equally rapid gasps for breath. There's only one person who does anything at that speed. But I thought she was too sick to leave the house. So why is she here?

"Breeze?"

I'm shocked by the weak and feeble whimper that seems to have replaced my voice, but I force myself to turn around anyway. The amount of effort it takes makes me forget my burnt hand and I whimper again in agony as I press it down on the bed.

She looks dreadful, or I should say that she looks ill, because she's still Brianna so she never truly looks dreadful, not in my eyes at least. But her face is deathly pale and every stumbling step she takes sets off another coughing fit that doubles her over and makes her thin frame shake alarmingly.

"You're too sick to be out," I tell her as she crashes against the side of the bed. I reach for her to steady her but I'm as weak as she is and can't support even her tiny weight for long. "What're you doing here?"

"Come to see you," she wheezes, trying to pull herself up off the floor. "Jack said… Jack said you were hurt. He was going on about fires and crushing houses. Said you got burnt and were sick. Then he passed out."

"But why are you here?" I persist, grasping her wrist and pulling her back until she's sitting on the side of the bed.

"Told you. To see you. To check you're OK."

"Do I look OK?" I retort, but I instantly regret it when we both laugh and then start coughing at the same time.

It hurts. It hurts so much. But she recovers first and being able to look up at her makes it easier to bear. Then she lies down, pushing back against me briefly to make herself some space before sagging down on the bed, as sick and exhausted as I am.

"So Zil's going down when we're better then?" she whispers. "You tell the council and I'll meet you outside Human Crew HQ at sunset?"

"I want that so much," I tell her, just managing to get my words out before I pass out.

When I wake up, it's to find Lana standing over me. There isn't even a dent in the pillow where Brianna rested her head to tell me she was ever really there at all.

* * *

Back before all this happened, when kids at Coates were starting to discover their power, some of them used to speculate about if you could use up all your strength or not. Now I know you can. It's the only way I can explain it, the only way I can describe the way it feels because I want to lower my arms but can't at the same time. In the end, ironically, it's gravity that carries them back down to rest by my sides.

Instead of moving, I just lie in the sand. I listen to the ocean, to the voices drifting over as kids try to understand what happened. But most of all I listen to the littles crying. I'm not good with them, they're all scared of me and I like it that way, but right now all I can think is that if they're screaming and wailing then they're alive. There aren't many sounds I'd rather hear. Except perhaps the one that comes next, that drowns out all other noise to me completely.

"Dekka!" she shouts, appearing by my side at the same time as I hear her approach. "Dekka, wake up. Do you want me to get Lana? I'm going to get Lana, need to get Lana," she continues, her words coming out in a babbling rush as she gets ready to zoom off again.

"Brianna," I mumble eventually, focusing all my energy into making that one sound.

I open one eye and see her stop just as she's about to run. She thought I was out of it, and she's surprised enough to lose her balance on the wet sand. If I wasn't quite so exhausted then I'd have laughed when her legs fly out from under her and she abruptly lands hard on my stomach before sliding onto the ground beside me.

"God, you're heavier than you look, Breeze," I manage, the sight of her somehow making me feel better like it always does.

She looks furious with herself, blushing red with embarrassment. I reach up and put my hand over hers.

"I won't tell a soul that the mighty Breeze is still human," I tease, but instead of laughing, she frowns thoughtfully back at me.

"You still need Lana," she says. "And kids are all staring at us," she adds, looking around in that casual way she has, like they're all so far beneath her that she can barely see them. "You saved the prees. You're a heroine, Dekka."

"I'm not," I reply, scowling. "I did what anyone would do. And I'm not lying here like some kind of exhibit at a freak show. Help me stand up."

She's on her feet instantly, holding her hand out to me.

"Get out of the way," she yells at any of the kids who step forwards. "Find Lana and send her here."

"Ask the Healer if she's got time to help me," I add to another kid I really should recognise but don't, who's looking across at me with respect that's bordering on reverence. I don't like it. There are too many people staring at me. That's Brianna's thing, not mine. "Please. I've had a rough day."

I vaguely recognise the awe in their eyes, and I just about have time to realise I don't like the responsibility it brings before everything fades to black.

* * *

I'm inside when I wake up despite how my last proper memory is of the fake FAYZ sky and the sand of the beach. It's too warm in here and it smells funny. In a bad way. However when I try to sit up, my head spins and I have to lie down again.

"Dekka, are you awake?"

I fail to sit up again and in the end settle for turning around to face the direction of the voice.

"Just about."

"Everyone's talking about what you did, man. You were awesome."

"You weren't so bad yourself, Edilio," I reply softly as the memory of him trying to fight Drake on the beach fills my mind and opens the floodgates to other memories I'd rather forget.

He shrugs his shoulders dismissively in that modest way he has, and then when he tries to sit up, he's considerably more successful than I was. He pushes himself to his feet, walks a short distance towards the door and then turns to look back at me.

"I guess Lana's healing magic's worked again," he says. "Are you coming?"

"She can't heal exhaustion," I reply, deciding I'd rather be on my own than in the middle of the crowd that's sure to be hanging around outside. "I'll stay here for a bit."

Then Edilio vanishes, leaving me alone with my thoughts and unsure of what to think. I experimentally lift first one leg and then the other, remembering being shot at and the way the bits of shrapnel mixed with the stones and shards of glass I threw in the air as a shield, combining to rip my skin to shreds. There's no pain, no scars. Lana. She's healed me as well. Not that I'm sure I deserve it.

My eyes drift closed again and I try to picture the cliffs, to remember the faces of the littles who would have died there if I hadn't saved them. But I can't. I close my eyes and all I see is Zil. All I see is the fear in his eyes as I restored gravity and sent him plummeting to his death. I made a choice to let him fall. I killed him. Dekka Talent the Murderer. I never ever thought I'd take the life of another person like that. And now I can't take it back.

I turn around to face the wall, tucking my newly healed legs up towards my stomach and covering my face with my hands. When I lower them, I'm surprised to find them wet with tears. I never wanted this. I never wanted any of it. And now I can't take it back.

"Everyone wants to see you," she calls as she bounds into the room without knocking. "They've all heard about what you did. They all want to know you're OK."

I stay facing the wall because I can't let her see me like this. I hardly ever cry, and on the rare occasions that I do, I don't let _anyone _see, never mind her. I should tell her I'm fine or at least pretend to be asleep, but I know I won't be able to speak without my voice shaking and my breathing's too irregular from crying for her to believe I can't hear her.

"Dekka? I know you're not asleep. Let's go. Move."

"Give me a minute, Breeze. Wait outside for me," I manage eventually.

"Dekka, are you crying?" she asks with a level of incredulous disbelief I'd be flattered by if I hadn't just killed someone and my mind wasn't full of thoughts of that. "What're you crying about? I told you before: you're a hero. Tonight's Everyone-Loves-Dekka Night. Come out and enjoy it."

"I don't love myself, Brianna," I tell her shakily, and at the same time as I hear her move, I feel her hands pulling at mine in an attempt to get me to lower them. "I took someone else's life. In the morning, the council will probably send me away."

"This is about _Zil_?" she asks, sitting down on the bed when I look up at her with tear-stained eyes. "You're seriously crying over that creep?!"

"Creep or not, he was still a person. And I still killed him."

"Jeez, you're starting to sound like Saint Astrid," she says exasperatedly. "He was trying to kill you, Dekka. He was trying to kill lots of people. He _did _kill a lot of people when he set the town on fire. And you stopped him. Then you saved virtually every kid in the day care. You shouldn't be the one alone and crying in this stinking hospital room!"

"I know," I reply, trying to make myself believe it. "I'll be fine in a minute. Honestly."

I attempt to sit up for the third time and am a bit more successful, managing to prop myself up on one arm in a way I hope convinces her that I meant what I said.

Then she throws her arms around my neck and hugs me tightly. I'm totally paralysed. I don't hug easily, I never have, but I'm not stupid enough to push her away and instead stay totally still, waiting for her to let go first. But she doesn't.

"Is that better now?" she asks, the perfect mixture of arrogance and teasing that only Brianna can achieve. "Not just anyone gets a hug off the Breeze, you know. You have to be special."

"I'm not special," I reply, and to my dismay, my tears start to fall again and I have no control over them whatsoever.

I try to stop but I can't, and my whole body shakes with the force of my sobs. By the time I can't cry anymore I'm gasping for breath, and I'm sure it takes several minutes for me to become aware of a cold hand awkwardly stroking my hair and the sharpness of the bone in her shoulder digging into my temple on the other side.

"Good," she says. "You've stopped crying. I'm not good at this sort of thing."

"You did great," I reply, trying to make her laugh. "But I'll try not to do it again."

"Good," she repeats. "Because I know anything can happen in the FAYZ but Dekka Talent doesn't cry. Ever."

"How do you know?" I ask, genuinely curious about her answer as I reluctantly raise my head and push her away.

"Because if you were going to cry then you'd have cried when we were back at Coates. And you didn't. I did, but you didn't."

I nod once and push her all the way off the bed. It's true what she said. She was always the outspoken one who answered back to Drake and Caine and even managed to teach me some new insults and swear words, but my shoulder was dampened with her silent tears more than once in the dark when there was no one there to see or care. I hadn't wanted to give in to it because I didn't want her to think I'd given up.

I hadn't known she'd noticed.

* * *

"Dekka?"

"Breeze," I reply, looking up from the book I had open long before she sat down on my bed ten minutes ago but haven't turned a page of since.

"I- What's kissing someone supposed to be like?"

"What?" I splutter eventually, halfway between shock and laughter.

"You're older than me so you must have kissed someone. So what's it like?"

"That depends on who you're kissing," I say, trying and failing to catch the book as it falls from my lap. It hits the floor with a loud crash. "Why?" I add suspiciously.

"Because I kissed Jack."

It takes me a few minutes to rid myself of first that mental image and then of one of me testing how high in the air it's possible for me to send Jack by cancelling gravity beneath his feet. I tell myself I'd stop once he reached the moon, but I'm honestly not sure that's the truth.

"Right," I reply, pleased by how even my voice is despite my reeling emotions. "And?"

"I stopped because I got bored," she says flatly, as shameless as only Brianna can be.

I laugh. I can't help it. Her words and the expression on her face are priceless. But what can I possibly say to that? That _I__'__m _not boring? I laugh again at the thought of telling her that.

"Then you obviously didn't really want to kiss him, Breeze," I say with a smile. "If you did then you wouldn't have been bored."

"But I thought I did want to. That's what I'm meant to want, isn't it?"

"Only you know what you feel," I say, getting up to stare out of the window so I don't have to stare at her while we have this conversation. "But I do know that you can't make yourself feel something you don't. You can pretend, even to yourself, but it won't be real."

"How come you're so smart about feelings and stuff?"

"I'm not," I whisper back. "But I know about trying to feel something I don't and not feel something I do."

She doesn't speak after that, and eventually I turn away from the window and face into my room again, half expecting her to have left. But she hasn't. She lies there sprawled on top of my bed, her hair fanned out across my pillow. It physically hurts to look at her. And she has no idea.

"Get up, Breeze," I growl. "You're messing up my bed."

She narrows her eyes as they lock with mine, and then she deliberately swings her arms and legs at her usual lightning speed, twisting the sheets and blankets even more.

"Brianna!"

"Fine, fine. Jeez, Dekka. Chill out."

She's up and by the door in less than a second, reaching for the handle because I've driven her away. But what am I supposed to say? I can't think properly with you lying on my bed like you belong there? Breeze, I know you're probably straight but I don't just want to be your friend? Like that would ever work out how I want it to.

"You don't have to leave," I say. "Just don't…wreck anything."

I'm a lot more relieved than I should be when she backs away from the door and sits down again.


	5. Chapter 5

_**This is as far as I can go until MG publishes Light (and a bit further)... Thanks to those of you who've told me you like it :)**_

I don't know where I am when I wake up. One of the few relatively undamaged houses in the town, I guess. Someone's left a bottle of water on the bedside table for me. The curtains are open and there's light streaming in. I barely notice it.

Instead I sit bolt upright as my hands search my body, dreading feeling them still crawling inside me. But they're not there. Not anymore. They came out. And the pain… I can still feel it. I don't think I'll ever stop feeling it. Even when I pull my shirt up and press my hand against the unmarked skin underneath. I'll never forget.

The memories come flooding back. Sam. Holding my hand and telling me not to give up while I begged him to kill me. Lana. Her hands on my head, growling at me to shut up and stop using up energy I can't afford to lose by talking.

Then there's her. Brianna. I told her. I thought I was dead for sure, that there was no way Lana could bring me back from _that_. So I told her. And she ran. And now she hates me. That's what hurts more than anything. The memory of the bugs breaking through my skin and the unimaginable agony of Sam cutting me open is still with me, but as I curl up on the bed, too weak and drained to cry, the only image flooding my mind is her face. She hates me, but that doesn't stop me loving her. If only it did. Life would be simple if it did.

* * *

It's starting to get dark before I decide it's time to move, before my traitorous body finally decides against just letting me die. I suppose I owe it to Sam and to Lana and to Quinn and his people to stay alive after what they did for me. And if I let myself die then one day Brianna will blame herself. I don't want to even imagine her hurting like that.

I swing my legs over the edge of the bed but stop before I can get up. On the floor by the side of the bed is my backpack. The same one I left here with when Sam, Jack and I went looking for water. I can't believe it survived everything that happened, but here it is. Whoever brought me here left it for me, and when I drag it up onto my lap and open it up, I know they left it untouched.

I throw it over my shoulder and it hangs in place by the one surviving strap. If I'm going out then I have to go now. Before it goes too dark and I can't see properly. Right now I don't think I have the strength to even pretend to be as unafraid as I used to be.

Walking through the town, it's immediately obvious that nobody is anywhere close to recovering from the bugs and Drake and the flu and every other thing that's inflicted so much suffering on us. The streets are virtually deserted other than a patrol group of about five kids who I avoid easily. They're talking about King Caine and I can't hear sarcasm when they say it. Well, I won't bow and scrape to that evil excuse for a person. Never mind everything bad he's done since, he was the one who ordered the plastering back at Coates, and nobody has ever claimed Dekka Talent doesn't hold a grudge. I'll die before I call him my king.

There's light coming from her smashed and glassless bedroom window, the green glow of a Sammy sun that reminds me of that night in the forest when we found Hunter. My first thought was that I should try to talk to her, to make her understand. But I can't. She doesn't understand. I scare her now, disgust her. I don't think I could bear to see that look in her eyes again.

So instead I mentally lecture myself about how low I've fallen to be lurking outside her house like a stalker and swing the backpack off my shoulder before searching through it for the thing that made me leave the house in the first place. It's a bit battered but still intact, and I almost smile at the thought of writing a letter to the packing company to tell them what a great job they do. If and when the FAYZ wall falls, of course.

My stomach rumbles at the sight of the pot of Nutella, but I hold it out in front of me anyway. I got it for her, slipped it into my bag when Sam and Jack weren't looking because when I saw the crates of it on the train, my first thought was how she always demanded it for breakfast when we were still at Coates. She hates me, but this is still hers. I still love her.

With that thought, I throw the pot towards the house. As it falls towards the ground, I raise my hand and cancel gravity underneath it. Getting Sam and Toto back to town on that crate has improved my control greatly, and the pot rises up with only a very small plume of dust and soil a couple of feet underneath it. When it reaches the height of Brianna's window, I gradually tilt it one way until it falls off the edge of my anti-gravity field and drops inside.

I hear her cry out in shock even from here, but I've already faded back into the shadows. I turn and run, knowing that if she follows then she'll be with me in seconds. But she doesn't appear. She knows and she stays where she is. She hates me, but I still love her.

I think I always will.

* * *

As I lie on the bed, staring up at the ceiling and trying to block out the memories, I wonder if Orc is actually the sensible one around here. Maybe getting drunk is the way to go. Maybe if I get that creep Howard to get me some of his home brew, I might finally be able to forget.

But I can't do that. If I do then I'll forget, but it'll make me weak as well. And my courage and strength are all I have left to hold onto now. I have nothing else. There is nothing else. Nothing but memories of bugs and pain and the look in her eyes as she turned and walked away.

"You're stupid, Dekka," I tell myself angrily as I swing my legs around and get up. "Stupid to think she'd ever feel the same, stupid to think she'd even look at you twice."

Frustrated and full of rage, I kick the pile of books that had been neatly stacked beside the bed. They spill out over the floor, sliding across each other and making a lot more noise than I thought they would. But once they've fallen still, the noise continues and I stop to listen. There's someone downstairs. And the creak of the floorboards tells me they're on their way up to meet me. But who would come here? Not Brianna, despite how my ever-hopeful and ever-stupid heart leaps at the thought. And not Sam or Edilio or any of the rest of them. They've all either spoken to me earlier or are too scared to try. So who?

The door opens inwards ever so slowly, like whoever is on the other side is unsure of the reception they'll get when I see them.

"Dekka?"

I'd know that voice anywhere. And she's here. Now.

I step forwards instinctively, without pausing to think, and seconds later she steps into the dim light of the Sammy sun that hovers on the ceiling above her head. She smiles, tilting her head slightly and crossing her arms over her chest. Her movement makes the silky fabric of her dress crease, catching the light so it shines. It's the dress she wore at Albert's club, only shorter and better fitting than it had been then. I stare back at her, completely speechless.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?"

"You're already here, Breeze," I tell her eventually. "People generally invite visitors in when they're still on the doorstep. I think it's a bit late now."

"Don't you have something you want to say to me, Dekka?" she asks, moving past me to sit on the bed.

"I said all I had to say before," I reply, looking out of the window so I don't have to look at her.

"Then maybe you should stop talking," she says, pushing herself further up the bed and lying back, her eyes never leaving mine.

"Brianna," I say, closing my eyes and opening them again because I know something's not right. "What is this?"

I pinch the back of my hand, expecting to wake up. I don't. She's still there, smiling up at me and holding out her hand. I force myself to turn away, taking a deep breath in the hope it will give me strength.

"No," I snap firmly, and this time when I look back at the bed, Brianna has vanished.

"You're no fun at all, are you, Dekka Talent?" comes a very different voice from the corridor.

"Penny," I growl, clenching my hands into tight fists because it's the only thing I can think of doing to stop myself from using my power in a way that will destroy my new house along with her. "Get out or I'll make you!"

"Said like you actually could," she replies, and high-pitched, almost mad laughter follows her words as she appears in the doorway. "I can make you see your worst nightmares as well as your ultimate fantasies, Dekka. You wouldn't stand a chance."

"Try me," I snap. "Or better still, get out of my house and don't bother."

She smiles and raises her hands as if in surrender.

"I didn't mean any harm," she says softly. "I only wanted to show you how we could work together. For the advantage of both of us, of course. If you help me out then I can chase away your nightmares whenever you like."

"With illusions? I'm not interested."

"You seemed interested before," she replies slyly. "When you were seeing your precious Breeze instead of me. But out of curiosity, how did you know? You're not the first person I've visited and my illusions are so powerful they seem real. Everyone's fallen for it, good and bad. Everyone but you."

"You rely too much on Taylor for gossip," I say, but she knows I'm lying so I quickly give up trying to fool her and tell her the truth instead. "And you look but you don't see."

"What?"

"The illusion you created looked so like Breeze it was Breeze, but you forget. You can create an image but you can't make it _be_ that person. Brianna wouldn't have done that. She wouldn't have sat there and waited for me to go to her. That's not her style."

"Says the person who's clearly imagined the moment more than once," replies Penny mockingly.

"When it comes to daydreams and fantasies, you're hardly in a position to judge, are you?" I retort instantly, smirking back and refusing to let her see me looking ashamed.

* * *

The sky might be darkening and we might be heading off into the desert after a psychopath who can't be killed, but my heart feels lighter than it has for months. I'm finally doing something to stop Drake, something useful to fight an enemy I can actually see, and she's with me. Really with me as opposed to just occupying the same space.

She runs in circles around me as I walk along at what is a reasonable pace for me and standing still to her. Around and around she goes until eventually I think I'm going to faint with dizziness.

"Brianna, stop a minute," I say, keeping my voice down just in case. "Quit breezing. You're making me dizzy."

"But I'm the Breeze. That's what I do: I breeze," she replies, but she is at least standing still when she speaks, looking _at _me rather than to the side of me for the first time in months.

"Just…chill. Please. For me."

I sit down on a relatively flat looking rock and look out at the seemingly endless desert. Then I look up at the sky. At the ever extending stain on the barrier that's getting closer to blocking off our light each time I see it.

"We'll think of something, Dekka," says Brianna as she sits down next to me. "Maybe if we get rid of Drake for good and get Diana back then the gaiaphage won't be able to get her baby and so it'll die and the barrier will go clear again-"

"That's a big maybe, Breeze," I interrupt, smiling when she shrugs her shoulders and smirks like the FAYZ is challenging her and she wants to tell it she's game for the fight.

"Nothing can stop us. Not even the gaiaphage," she replies immediately with all of her usual confidence.

Then she shuffles closer and lays her head on my shoulder like she did countless times before what happened by the lake changed everything.

I stiffen. I don't mean to but I can't help it. What happened did happen, and I don't want her to leave again. I don't want to ruin everything again.

"Sorry," she says, raising her head but not moving away. "That's not helping, is it?"

"Helping what?" I ask, curious despite everything.

"I don't know what I want. I don't know how I feel. About anything really. I-"

"Stop. It's OK. As long as you don't shut me out again then it's OK. We're still friends, Brianna. That hasn't changed, not for me anyway."

"I…I don't want to hurt you more…"

"Your head's not that heavy. I'm tough."

"Very funny," she replies, rolling her eyes at me before curling up against my side again. "I don't know what I feel, Dekka," she says again. "I don't feel nothing, but I-"

"I won't say it again. What I said at the lake, I mean. But it won't change."

"Good," she says, and enough's happened for me to push her away slightly and stare down at her in puzzlement. "If you changed your mind so quickly then I'd think you're not the person I know you are."

"That's a bit deep for you, isn't it, Breezy? Are you sure you haven't been spending too much time with Astrid?"

She hits me and pouts. "I doubt that's gonna happen. And who said you can call me Breezy again?"

"Me. And you can't stop me. If you try then I'll just do this," I continue, and then I turn my palms down to face the ground.

I realise my mistake a second later when the whole rock tips up and we both slide off the end. She shrieks with laughter and I'm laughing along with her way before I stop to wonder how far the sound has carried.

* * *

I walk on and on in the darkness, following the sound of Orc's stone feet hitting the floor. He doesn't speak much. I'm glad. I don't feel like talking and I wouldn't know what to say to him anyway. How can I decide what to say when I don't know if I'm grateful that he came along and saved me or if I hate him for it?

The darkness is total. I can't see anything, not even my own hand when I lift it up in front of my face. I suppose it's a good thing. If it had been light then Orc would have seen me. He would have seen me hit rock-bottom and then sink a little bit lower. And I couldn't have dealt with that, I couldn't have dealt with anyone seeing me so broken. But then, what does it really matter? What's the point of my stubborn pride? It never gets me anywhere. It didn't protect me from the bugs and it didn't stop Penny from bringing the memory back and making it ten times worse.

Orc stumbles up ahead and calls back a warning that there's a bush in the way. I nod to tell him I've heard but then remember he can't see me and so say 'okay' instead. Stupid darkness. Stupid FAYZ. Why can't this all end? Why couldn't Orc have just left me to die?

"Do you think any of the others are still out here?" Orc asks.

"Probably," I reply eventually. "They have to be."

"Have to be?" he echoes, sounding confused.

"Yeah. Have to be. 'Cause if she's dead then so am I."

"She?" he asks, but I don't answer and he keeps walking.

The memory of Penny's illusion, the feeling of suffocation and the bugs crawling inside me, has finally started to fade a little. I can still remember it in vivid, horrifying detail, but it no longer consumes me. The part of my mind that knew it wasn't real has grown stronger, and if I try then I can fight the memory back. But when I do, all I can think about is what I should have been doing when instead I was crawling on the ground in the grip of Penny's vision.

I should have been going to the mineshaft. I should have arrived to meet her. She was waiting for me, delaying Drake for as long as she could, for as long as it took me to catch up, and I was going to meet her. But then Penny struck and suddenly I wasn't. But I should have been.

Because the one thought that hasn't left me since is that she was waiting for me and I didn't arrive. She was relying on me and I wasn't there. I promised myself that would never happen but I let it. And knowing that is worse than anything Penny could have made me see.

* * *

Despite everything that happened in Perdido Beach both before and after it went dark, the house Brianna found for me what feels like a lifetime ago when we first arrived here from Coates is still standing. It's probably in a better condition than any building on the street, almost like the kids heeded Breeze's warning about the consequences of messing it up even though I know it's just a coincidence really.

I'm running away. Even as I walk down the path towards the front door, I know it's true. My parents are on the other side of the barrier. My mother I barely recognise and my father who still looks so very angry. I stood there through everything that happened with Drake and Caine and Sam, Diana and the little girl I somehow know is more than she appears, all without flinching. But I saw my parents and I ran. I saw the fear and disgust in their eyes, I saw how they barely recognised me, and I ran. All the way back to town and all the way to this house, via the beach of course. I think a lot of my parents' disgust was because of my appearance, and my pride won't let them see me like I was for a second time.

The door's open, the lock long since smashed, but I push it anyway. After what I've seen, I don't fear anything that may or may not be hiding inside.

I go straight to the downstairs bathroom, hoping there's still a change of clothes in the cupboard. There is, so I pull them on. As I do, I try to talk myself into going back outside, to going back to the barrier and facing my fear. I get as far as the stairs before I chicken out and slowly climb them, suddenly so exhausted that I can think only of my bed.

"You coward, Talent," I growl at myself, but my feet keep climbing all the same, and in the end I give up and let them.

The bedroom's how I left it, right down to the pile of old clothes on the floor and the empty water bottles I couldn't quite carry. Except I'm not alone.

I could almost have missed her. She sits on the window seat as quietly as I've ever seen her, her knees tucked under her chin as she hugs her legs tightly to her chest.

"Shouldn't you be by the barrier?" I ask her softly, and when she turns to face me, I'm sure I can see tears in her eyes. They look wrong on that face, like they shouldn't try to take the place of her usual fierce determination and courage that I love so much.

"Mom's not there. Jerkface probably wouldn't let her come. I bet he loved the FAYZ, you know. A tidy solution to his Brianna problem without him even having to try."

"Your mom loves you, Brianna. Nothing anyone could say to her would keep her away. She'll be there soon, I promise."

She looks away, burying her face against her knees, and I don't know what to do. Before I'd have gone to her and held her in my arms just so she knew she wasn't alone, but now? Now I'm not so sure. I don't want to drive her away by pushing her too far. I've only just got her back. I can't lose her again. But standing here watching her cry isn't right either, so in the end I settle for crossing the room and sitting on the other end of the window seat. She still doesn't look at me.

"It's all my fault," she sobs eventually.

"That your mom's not here? No, Breeze, it's not your fault. She's on her way. She won't leave you. Why would she want to leave you? No one with any sense would let you go."

She does look up at that, staring across at me with red-rimmed eyes that are still wet with the tears she keeps stubbornly wiping away.

"I don't mean Mom," she says. "I meant the gaiaphage and Diana and Drake and the baby. If it wasn't for what I did then none of this would have happened. The gaiaphage would never have got free. Dekka, it's all my fault."

"You're going to have to start at the beginning if you want me to understand, Brianna. Tell me what happened."

"I… I…"

She tries several times to get her words out, but every time she tries, she can't do it. Whatever it is that's made her like this has transformed her so much I barely recognise her. This isn't brave and fearless Brianna the Breeze. This is just Brianna, a regular girl consumed by a guilt I don't understand.

"Brianna-"

I start to tell her something I'm not quite sure I've thought of myself yet, but before I can get any further than her name, she throws herself towards me. She moves so quickly that my instinct reacts faster than my logic and I open my arms to her without thinking.

I pull her close for a few seconds, but then the more sensible part of my brain catches up and I try to push her away, fearing her reaction when she gets control of herself again. To my surprise she doesn't let me. She clings to me like she's never going to let go.

"I was there when Diana had the baby. In the mineshaft. And Drake and Penny and the gaiaphage… The gaiaphage wanted the baby. I was holding it, I mean her, and the gaiaphage had Penny make me see things that weren't real. I gave the baby to it, Dekka. Diana was screaming at me to run but I couldn't fight it. So it's my fault. The gaiaphage is free and inside Diana's baby because I was weak, because I lost."

"You think this is your fault? Because you couldn't fight the gaiaphage and Drake and Penny when you were on your own in the dark? You might like to think you are but you're not Supergirl, Brianna. You can't win every fight."

"I don't lose," she replies, and though some of her usual fierceness is lost because of her sobbing gasps for breath, she looks more like the Breeze I'm used to than she did before. "But I did. And it's my fault."

"It's not your fault," I repeat, not sure what else to say, what words to use to make her see sense.

"It is!" she yells, suddenly angrily pulling away. "Why won't you admit it?! Why won't you see?!"

"I won't admit it because I don't believe it," I tell her flatly, refusing to let her see how much I'm still hurting. "I know what Penny's visions are like, good and bad, and I know how strong they are. I know how real they are and how she can mess with your head. I'd have given the baby to the gaiaphage as well, and so would virtually every other person alive if they'd been in your place."

She flops back onto the seat, her anger leaving her as quickly as it came. She leans half against my arm and half against the back of the chair. I sit there and let her because I've run out of words. I'm beginning to think I've run out of emotions as well. I don't know what to say any more. I don't know what to think.

"Why aren't you still down by the barrier?" she asks eventually. "Weren't your parents there?"

"They were there," I reply after at least a minute, only speaking when she turns to look up at me, those big hazel eyes refusing to be denied a proper answer. "But they looked at me like they were hoping to see someone else. They're here but they still hate me."

"But why do they hate you, Dekka? You're Dekka. You're awesome."

I laugh when she says that. I can't help it. But it isn't a happy laugh because I keep thinking about Dad, about how he'd never agree with her. And then I feel sad because that doesn't matter to me half as much as it did. Or half as much as it should.

"Not to them," I say. "Never to them. Not anymore."

"Why?"

"You know why, Breeze."

"Because you like girls? That's just stupid. When that barrier comes down I'll slap some sense into him for you if you want."

"Don't think that'd help me much."

"But seeing it'd make you feel better," she replies, looking back at me with something like her usual wicked smirk.

I can't help smirking back, and she smiles before settling down again. Several minutes pass before she speaks, and I immediately wish she'd stayed silent.

"Dekka, what did you mean when you said 'good and bad' when you were talking about Penny?"

"Don't ask me that, Breeze," I reply, trying to keep my expression blank as she turns her head to look at me. "Don't ask me that because I won't ever tell you."

* * *

It takes more effort than virtually anything I've ever done to fight my own fear, but I manage to when I think of her. All I know is that I have to find her. Because she won't understand. She won't see what I can see because she hasn't seen what I've seen. She didn't see the facility where we found Toto. She doesn't know the truth of what will happen when they take us out of here and she isn't the type of person who will stop to think for long enough to work it out.

I run faster than I've ever ran before, almost wanting to laugh at the thought of what her response would be, of how she'd tease me and say she can walk quicker. I double over, totally breathless, when I finally see her. Fortunately she's standing a short distance away from where the barrier used to be, just out of sight of the onlookers waiting impatiently behind the scientists wearing radiation suits and the parents reunited with their damaged and broken children just beyond them.

"My mom's not here yet," she says when she sees me, her expression showing some of the confusion that's there in all of us. "I'm waiting so I can run to her. So I can see the look on her face."

"I'm sorry, Brianna," I say, standing quite a distance away from her and speaking really quietly so she has to move further away from the crowd beyond the ridge so she can hear. "But you can't."

"Can't what? Run? I can. I'll show you. I'm still the same Breeze even without the barrier."

"I know that," I reply, trying not to sound dismissive because the last thing I want is for her to leave. "But that's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean, Dekka?" she says impatiently.

I can see her looking longingly in the direction of the real world but I carry on anyway. If she's going to do what I need her to do then she has to work it out for herself. She has to believe reality rather than her dream.

"What do you think will happen when they let us out of here, Breeze?"

"My mom will take me away and we'll go to Crispy Crème. Like we used to before she married Jerkface."

I shake my head sadly, wishing with all my heart that she was right and I was wrong. But I'm not.

"I'm sorry, but I came looking for you because I knew that's what you'd say. And you're wrong. They won't let us leave. Or maybe they will, until the media frenzy dies down. But then they'll come for us."

"Who are _they_?" she asks, scoffing and backing away. "No one will come for us. _You__'__re_ wrong. And I'm going home."

But I can see the sliver of doubt in her eyes, and when she turns her back on me and starts walking, she moves slowly enough for me to aim my hand at her feet and cancel gravity beneath her. She rises up several feet in the air, and though she tries to fight it, she can't escape. She pulls her gun from her bag and points it straight at me.

"I said I'd shoot you last time and I'm saying it again!" she yells, angry that I have her trapped. "Put me down or I'll shoot! Dekka!"

"I won't put you down, Brianna!" I scream back, surprised by the force behind my words even when I've long since come to terms with how deeply I feel for her. "Shoot me if you want to but you _will _listen! I told you before: when we found all that Nutella and stuff, we found Toto as well. And he'd been kept in a locked room like a lab rat for over a year because he had power. Do you really think they'll let you go back to high school, Brianna?! They won't. They'll lock you up and they'll do experiments on you because all they'll want to know is why you can run so damn fast. Their need for knowledge will cancel all your rights. You'll be nothing but your power. They'll never set you free. Which is why you have to run. Run and don't look back."

"But-"

She's stopped struggling against my anti-gravity field. She's listening. She's thinking about what I said and deciding that I might be right. And she hates it.

"My mom… Dekka, I want to see my mom. I want to go home."

There are tears in her eyes. I can see them even as she tries to roughly wipe them away. I lower her slowly to the ground and step forward, wrapping her in my arms. There's no awkwardness this time. We're past that. This situation is past that.

"I know, Breezy," I whisper, stroking her hair gently. "But they won't let you go home. Or if they do then they won't let you stay there. You can get away so you have to go. Before they get a proper look at you."

"They've seen me already," she replies, her voice shaking as she keeps trying to hold back her tears.

"For about ten seconds when you were moving quicker than the speed of sound. They haven't seen you since the barrier came down for real. Run and I'll tell them you died. That you were showing off, lost control when you were being reckless and fell. Anyone who's ever met you shouldn't find it too difficult to believe."

"Hey!" she retorts, whacking my shoulder and half-smiling at the same time. But then the smile fades and her expression turns black. "What do you mean that you'll tell them I died? You're going to let them get you?"

"I don't have a choice, Brianna. I can cancel gravity but that won't help me get away. I wasn't on the list they had at the facility so I can try to pretend I don't have power but someone will give me away eventually, probably without even knowing they've done it."

"If you're staying then I'm staying," she says defiantly, pulling away and fixing her hands on her hips.

"No, you're not," I reply firmly. "Because there's one thing worse for me than the thought of them locking me up, and that's the thought of them doing it to you. I love you, you stupid girl. No matter if you love me back or not. You have to run."

She stares back at me, and I can tell from the look in her eyes that she's planning on fighting me. Some tiny part of my heart leaps because of it, because she doesn't want to go without me. The rest of me needs her to go. Right now, if the noise from the other side of the ridge is anything to go by. So I do what I've never done before. I slap her face. Hard enough to make her pale skin flush bright pink.

"Brianna," I hiss, gazing unblinkingly into her eyes, taking in the stunned look on her face because I know it might be the last time I ever see her. "Run. Please. If I mean anything to you in any way then run."

"I'll come back. I'll bust you out of jail, I promise. And you'd better be ready, Talent. The Breeze works quickly."

"Go," I whisper, suddenly fighting back my own tears.

I don't see her leave. All I see is the cloud of dust she leaves behind.


	6. Chapter 6

**_So...I've been away from this site for a few months because of Real Life stuff, but then Light came out and I couldn't resist. Michael Grant, I think you're an awesome author and you must be doing something right for me to care so much, but did you have to kill her? Really?_**

**_Anyway, this continues on from the scene in the previous chapter where they're talking about Penny. I guess it's not quite canon, but technically it isn't AU either - they feature so little in Light apart from their obvious heroics so I did my usual gap-filling thing and wrote what I imagined happening 'behind the scenes' when I was reading the book..._**

It's even easier to leave Sam and Astrid's boat than it normally is. The kids staying here keep their distance from me still, just like they always did, but eventually some of the braver ones started to shout questions, wanting to find out more about what was said on the Boss' boat. But not now. Not now the outside world has reappeared. They don't care what's happening in here anymore. That's part of the problem.

"It's not my problem though," I tell myself as I step across the narrow gap onto the deck and head towards my trailer. "Let the others worry about it. I'm through."

But I'm not. That's the rest of the problem. I wish I had it in me to walk away, to hide like Albert did, but I haven't. And while that's something some people would call a virtue, to me right now, it's just a pain in the butt.

I pull back the curtain that divides the bedroom from the living quarters, wanting nothing more than to flop into bed and hope I have a rare FAYZ-free dream instead of yet another nightmare. Then I stop. I'm not alone. And she might not know what she feels, but I know what I feel, and I can't turn it off.

"Aren't you meant to be out patrolling?" I ask, trying to keep my voice as casual as I can. "Or preparing your interview answers for Oprah?"

"I'm asleep, Dekka," Brianna replies, scowling slightly as she glares up at me through barely open eyes. "Go away."

"You're not asleep. You're talking to me. And why should I go away? This is my place."

"I was tired. Looking for Gaia is hard work. I wanted to sleep and here was closer."

"A few metres is nothing to the Breeze," I say dismissively, knowing there's more to it than that. "What d'you want, Brianna?"

She turns away to face the wall, making her mass of strawberry-blonde hair fan out across my pillow.

"You still have nightmares, don't you?"

"No," she snaps, turning back to glare fiercely at me. "The Breeze doesn't feel fear."

"Brianna does. Even if she won't admit it. Now get up out of my bed and let me sleep."

She smirks at that, suddenly mischievous in a way that's much more familiar to me than the fear and doubt I saw in her before.

"Say it like you mean it, Talent," she says, rolling her eyes almost playfully and with far too much awareness to be the child Sam and Astrid think she is and she half-pretends to be when she can't get her emotions straight in her own head.

I spin on my heel immediately, take enough steps to put me back in the other room and then yank the curtain closed before heading towards the door. I'm been through too much and seen too much to be able to deal with her teasing me about the way I feel for her, even if I sincerely doubt she truly has any idea what she's doing.

"Dekka, I'm sorry," she tells me as she appears in front of me a split second later. "I didn't…I didn't think…"

"You never do, Breeze," I reply, staying still because I know from experience there's no point trying to outrun her. "But whatever's between us now, I don't deserve that. Just go patrol and leave me alone."

"No. I'm not going," she retorts petulantly.

"Now, Brianna. Please. Just go."

I expect her to ignore me and part of me wishes she would, but the door's closing behind her before I have time to properly register that she's gone. I'm going to get over her, or at least I'm going to try to. That's what I've been telling myself since the dome went clear yesterday. What's the point of loving someone who doesn't love you back? So how is it that simply seeing her can put me right back where I started?

I sigh deeply and cross the room to sit on the bed. When I lie down and pull the covers up, the pillow still smells like her. I turn it over but it does no good. It's like she's still in the room with me. Then the door clicks open and closed again and she is.

"I told you once, Breeze," I hiss as she pulls the covers back and sits down beside me like she used to before she ever knew the truth. "Go."

"I did. Then I came back. Go to sleep."

"No," I say, trying to be firm and spare myself the pain by pushing her away now. "You should-"

"Dekka, I lied, okay?" she whispers, so unusually quiet that I have to stop moving so I can hear her. "If you tell then I'll kill you, but you guessed right about the nightmares. I never had them when I stayed with you. And I'm really tired."

What can I possibly say to that? How could I even try to imagine a time when I didn't love her? But how can I say what I feel when I swore to her that I'd never say it again? How can I expect her to deal with it when she's already told me she can't?

She looks across at me, as stubbornly determined in this as she was when she faced Caine and Drake back at Coates what feels like a lifetime ago. I sigh deeply, knowing I've lost.

"Don't snore. And don't put this on me. Your choice, right?"

"Whatever," she replies flippantly.

I roll my eyes one last time and let myself fall back onto the bed, wishing everything could be as straightforward to me as it seems to be to her. When I lift my arm to pull the blanket over myself properly, she turns around and curls up against me, her back tightly against my side and her head on my shoulder.

She's asleep instantly. I'm still awake when the sun rises.

* * *

It's kind of relaxing, the mind numbing, repetitive task of sorting through our painfully inadequate remaining supply of bullets. Edilio didn't ask me to do it personally. He wouldn't, because he'd think I'd think he was being disrespectful, but I'm doing it myself anyway. It takes my mind off everything else, and when the words of the song come to me, I don't hold them back. There's nobody else here. There's nobody to hear me, and there's nobody to see the tears that fall as I think of the home I had before Dad sent me to Coates and Mom did nothing to stop him.

The noise behind me of something hitting the deck makes me spin around, and I fall silent instantly. She's picked whatever it is up before I see more than the flash of metal that makes me think it's a bullet, staring back at me with false innocence that's all too familiar.

"If you're out of bullets then you just have to ask, Breeze. Nobody in the FAYZ is going to tell you no."

"What're you doing shut up in here? And _what_ were you singing? Since when did you sing anyway?"

"Since there was nobody here to listen. You should try to make some noise, you know." She shrugs her shoulders dismissively. "And I was singing Etta James. Don't you know anything about classic jazz?" I continue dryly, not sure if I'm mocking her or myself.

"Strangely enough, no, I don't," she replies, pulling herself up onto the worktop and kicking her legs almost lazily for her.

"Neither do I really," I confess, wondering why I'm telling her any of this. "I spent a lot of time with my grandma when I was a kid and jazz was her thing. I guess I grew up listening to it and it kind of stuck."

"I didn't know that."

"Why would you have done?"

"I've no idea. You don't talk about yourself much."

"There's not much to tell. Grandma's dead now. I'm the only child of a man who thinks people like me should get the death penalty and a woman who didn't love me enough to stop him from sending me away. What d'you want me to say, Breeze?"

She shuffles embarrassedly and I know I've said too much. Serves her right. She shouldn't creep up on a girl when she's let her defences down.

"Sing again, Dekka," she says, changing the subject. "You're good."

"I don't know 'Living Dead Girl' or 'Mainlining Murder' or whatever it's called," I retort sharply, abruptly equally as embarrassed. "And I'm busy."

"Sing what you were singing before," she replies stubbornly.

Absolutely not, I tell her silently as I turn back to the bullets. I might not know much about my grandma's style of jazz beyond the fact that "At Last" was her favourite, but the lyrics of that song and looking at Breeze at the same time? That's a definite no. I've said too much already over the past few months.

"Spoilsport," she says when she realises I'm not going to respond, jumping off the top of the cupboards and landing lightly on her battered sneakers. "Wait 'til I tell the others I heard you singing. You could come with me when I'm on Oprah. That would be so awesome."

"Forget it. I'm not singing a note, not even for you. And you'll end up in orbit if you say a word."

"Saint Astrid was looking for you," she says with an amused sigh, for once in her life realising she's not going to win this one. "Come on then, Beyonce," she adds, gesturing towards the door when I can do no more than stare back at her.

I laugh, remembering how Sam called me that as well, back when he pretended to be surprised to learn I have a last name just like everyone else.

She holds her hand out expectantly and I drop several of the bullets onto her palm.

"Put one of those in Drake for me."

"With pleasure," she replies, and with a final cocky smirk, she's gone.

* * *

When I look up at it, the coyote stops edging forwards, nervous but far too hungry to truly consider who and what it might be walking into. It growls at me, baring rotten teeth and pinning torn ears back against an emaciated skull.

"Really?" I ask it incredulously. "Do you seriously think that's going to scare me?"

After what I've seen, after the cement blocks and the flesh-eating bugs and the gaiaphage, it'll take a lot more than this sorry creature to frighten me.

It growls again, even more uncertain now I'm not backing away. But it's so, so hungry. And I know how that feels so I'm almost sympathetic. But only almost.

It skids back when I send a sapling tree that was a few metres away from it flying into the air with a slight flick of my hand, but fear doesn't defeat desperation for long, and the next second it charges towards me.

I flick my hand again, sending the coyote six feet upwards virtually instantly. However in the time it takes me to focus and think about sending it higher still and then dropping it to its death, the creature is suddenly missing its head. And when I notice the aforementioned head floating around inside my anti-gravity field, the image is so disgusting I let the whole coyote drop.

"You and me, Dekka," says the animal's executioner brightly, misjudging her distance and crashing into me like she always does. "Let's go get Gaia. You trap her and I'll chop her head off."

"It wouldn't be that easy," I reply, setting her back on her feet. "Life doesn't work that way, especially my life."

"How do you know?"

"Experience. What're you doing here, Breeze?"

"Patrolling. Sam told me to."

"You'd better go then."

"I'm going after Drake. Don't nag me about talking to them again because it's just too much fun for me to stop, but I meant what I told the lookers. There's going to be a piece of him in every corner of the FAYZ soon. Then we'll see how good he is at putting himself back together."

"Promise me you'll be careful, Brianna."

"You always tell me that," she says, suddenly looking vaguely offended. "You always say it like you think I'm useless, like I can't do anything. But I can. I'm the Breeze. I've beaten Drake before and I'm going to do it again!"

"Is that what you really think? That I tell you to be careful because I think you're going to lose?"

"Don't you?" she retorts stubbornly.

Wondering how this suddenly got so serious, I push myself to my feet and walk close enough to her that I have to look down to meet her eyes.

"Come on, Breeze," I tell her, pushing my hair back from my face in exasperation. "I said I wouldn't do this again and I meant it… Oh hell, what does it matter? I don't think you're going to lose, but there can't be a world without you in it. So I tell you to be careful over and over again because I hope that one day you'll listen. Because I'm too young to die inside."

"Don't say that," she says, shaking her head as she suddenly becomes Brianna the regular girl instead of Breeze the superhero. "You wouldn't die without me," she continues, her voice rising so she sounds like she's trying to convince herself as much as she is me. "You wouldn't. You're Dekka, you can survive anything."

"You're the one who thinks you're bulletproof, _Supergirl_."

She rolls her eyes and throws her arms around my waist with way more strength than she realises she possesses, leaving me short of breath and in pain but unwilling to ever push her away.

"I love you, Dekka. I don't know if I love you like _that_, but I do love you."

"So watch your back and don't die then," I say, fighting back tears I refuse to let her see.

* * *

She zoomed off like she usually does, leaving me to follow behind, and though I'm not really scared, I'm on my guard as I head back towards Lake Tramonto. With Gaia and Drake out there somewhere, everyone's on their guard these days.

The noise coming from behind the massive rocks that line the path just ahead of me makes me raise my hands, ready to attack. I'm not sure what I expect. More coyotes, I guess, because if it was Gaia then I'd be dead by now. When I send half of the rocks flying upwards, they're accompanied by an indignant squeal from somewhere behind the other half.

"Do you enjoy using your freaky gravity powers on me or something?!" Breeze yells, appearing on the path in front of me.

"Well…" I reply with a smirk. "Honestly?"

She huffs back but doesn't reply, glancing in the direction of the rocks and then at me again.

"I thought you'd gone Drake-hunting," I say suspiciously.

"I need to go back to the lake first. Come with me?"

She turns back to me with that look in her eyes, the one that means trouble, and then she winks, smirking wickedly.

"What?" I ask, not entirely convinced I want to know.

"How do you feel about flying, Dekka?"

"Why?" I ask, taking an exaggerated step back in pretend fear.

"Because I found this," she replies, grinning as she reaches behind the rock, pulls her bag onto her back and then drags out a very battered looking skateboard.

"Be serious, Brianna. Gaia could attack any day. This isn't the time for messing around. This isn't a game."

"Who says it isn't?" she asks, but whatever she sees in my expression makes her hurriedly continue. "I'm not messing around. I'm going back to the lake to get some more bullets and then I'm going after Drake. And you can come with me. Breeze-style. Unless you're scared…"

"It takes more than that to scare me these days," I tell her, but I vaguely remember Sam saying something about this a long time ago. I also remember him looking more than slightly queasy when he said it. "But you should go."

She doesn't answer. Instead she zooms the short distance across to me in a split-second, and the skateboard's at my feet before I know it. She stands there with her hands on her hips, looking expectantly up at me.

"No."

"Yes," she retorts stubbornly, zipping around behind me and pushing me forwards so quickly I don't have time to react and stop my feet from stepping onto the board.

Then I don't have time to worry because the force of her moving at some ridiculous speed hits me and my surroundings blur as I shoot forwards, moving faster than I've ever moved before.

It would have taken me several minutes to walk back to the lake, but with Brianna's help, I'm there in seconds. When she stops running, her feet skid along the floor in a way that shows me exactly how she's trashed so many sneakers, and we've gone many more metres along before I'm finally still. Or as still as I can be when my head's spinning and her arms around my waist are the only thing keeping me upright.

"Well? Aren't you even more jealous of me and my badass powers now, Talent?" she crows, tightening her grip as she leans around me, her chin digging sharply into my upper arm.

If you want to kill me then now would be a good time, Gaia. That's all I can think as I turn to look down into Brianna's big hazel eyes. At least I'd die happy.

"How do you run like that all the time without puking?" I reply teasingly, rolling my eyes at her joking arrogance.

"I'm just awesome that way," she says, and her earlier smirk returns as she pulls me off the skateboard. "You're braver than Sam. He wore the helmet."

"Now you tell me about the helmet!" I exclaim, pretending to be angry at her even though I know she won't fall for it. "You didn't even give me the option!"

"I don't know where it is. And I wouldn't have let you fall, Dekka."

"I know."

She smiles back, and there's a hint of nervousness in her usually cocky expression that I don't remember seeing before. Not for the first time, she looks like she wants to say something but she doesn't know how.

"I should go look for Drake," she says eventually, and she looks relieved when I nod in agreement.

"Be careful."

"Yes, Mom."

"I'm not your mom, Breeze."

"I know," she replies, her tone suddenly anything but casual, then with another quick wink, she's gone.

I turn and head back to camp, trying not to read too much into what she said and her return into my life after four months of Breeze-less nothing. I know I've failed before I'm even halfway there.

* * *

When I return to the houseboat with the bike chain, Astrid isn't there. Honestly, how long does it take to gather some rocks? She's probably searching only for round ones because she's got some scientific equation to tell her they sink better or something.

I wouldn't mind normally, as there isn't much Sam's girl and I agree on and we're not the best of friends, but her not being here leaves me alone with Drake's head. And that's really something I could do without when I can't decide if I want to run from it or send it flying up in the direction of outer space.

"It doesn't matter what you do," the head calls, voice wheezy and nowhere near at Drake's normal volume. "The gaiaphage made me immortal. I can't die!"

"I know what immortal means," I snap, hunting around for the screwdriver in one of the drawers and trying not to think about how I'm having a row with the disembodied head of one of my greatest enemies.

"It means I can come back. And I'll kill your little bitch for what she did. Slowly and painfully," he adds, smirking like he relishes the prospect.

"It seems to me that my little bitch killed _you_, Drake," I reply conversationally, trying to hold back the surge of emotion I feel at using the possessive even in this context.

"I might get Ellison first, 'cause she deserves it, but then Brianna… She's perfect for it. So up herself and proud, but she'll beg for mercy in the end, and scream in pain. You can watch, if you like? Or help? You'd like to make Brianna scream, wouldn't you, Dekka?"

That's it. Enough. I raise my hands, unable to hold back my rage for another second as I turn towards the head that rests on the table, but then the door opens.

"No, Dekka!" shrieks Astrid. "We need to do this properly for when Sam gets here. You know that. Don't listen to him."

I exhale sharply and turn my glare onto her. Saint Astrid, that's what Breeze always calls her. Astrid the Genius. What right has she got to dictate to me?

But when I look at her, I can see the fear in her eyes, fear of Drake, mixed in with curiosity as she wonders just what he could have said to make me react so strongly.

"Don't make what Breeze did mean nothing," she says.

How can I argue with that?

* * *

I knew there was something wrong as soon as I saw Diana. She wouldn't be here otherwise. And when she said that Gaia's going to kill us all, there was no hint of doubt in her voice, nothing to make me think she's manipulating us like she's manipulated so many people before. Like she manipulated me once.

Word spreads around the camp quicker than Breeze runs, and everything descends into chaos soon after. Gaia's coming. Run for your lives. That's all the kids hear, all they can think about. All I can think about is Brianna. I yelled for her but she didn't come. She's patrolling. One of our deadliest weapons is most likely to be many miles away from where she needs to be. Kids will die because she's not here.

I crouch in the shadow of one of the anchored boats and part of me hopes that's not my fault, that fear of saying whatever she wanted to say earlier hasn't driven her away. The other part of me sings with joy because she's not here. If she's not here then Gaia can't get her, and to me nothing else matters.

* * *

When Gaia finally appears, it's with a flash of light and Brianna's speed. Brianna's speed, not Gaia's. The power belongs to her, to my girl who will likely never be my girl, not to the monster that's most likely going to be the end of all of us.

But it's Sam's power that Caine and Diana's demon child unleashes first, beams of light ripping through the tents and trailers like a knife through butter. The houseboat explodes and people jump into the water screaming, desperate to escape. The screaming continues, like it's never going to stop. The world's on fire, like the picture of Hell in that book Dad showed me when I was a kid.

What would you say now, Dad? That this is Hell and I deserve to be here? That I've had this coming since way before that day in the car park that changed everything more than I could ever have imagined?

There's another flash of light and the boat next to me explodes at the same time as I turn my hands down and fly upwards, taking half the end of the dock with me.

When I open my eyes and look down, I almost wish I'd died. At least it would have been quick. At least I wouldn't have had to see the sight that's below me now.

Gaia hasn't moved. She just stands there with her hands outstretched, turning her head this way and that as she picks off targets one by one like it's a game. But it is a game to her. She's the one with the power, she's the one in control. And I don't see how we can stop her.

I see Astrid, and I can't quite bring myself to ignore her and leave her to fend for herself, not when Sam would want more than anything for her to be saved.

She yells for me, for Orc and for Jack, the useless coward who dared to think himself good enough for Breeze and yet can't even find the courage to stand and fight when surely he must see that he's going to die anyway, no matter what he does.

"No, find Orc! He can't possibly swim!"

That's what Astrid shouts when I get close enough to reach for her, and for once in my life I do what she tells me. Orc saved my life. Orc guided me through the darkness when I had given up and was waiting to die. I owe him and I don't like to leave a debt unpaid.

* * *

I can't hold my breath for much longer. I can't keep going. I open my eyes again and there's nothing but darkness below and the red and orange flames above the surface. No escape, no mercy, and no Orc.

I almost choke on the smoke from the fires when I come up for air. Something pushes into me and I spin round in the water, the sight of pale skin and long hair out of the corner of my eye making my heart stop.

But the dead girl floats by and it isn't her, so my world starts turning again and I keep swimming.

* * *

I find Orc stranded on the floor of the lake, and he reaches for me when he sees me, alive but only just. Pushing him back so we don't both drown and then using my power to raise us both towards the sky, all I can think of is the nightmare I'll find on the surface, but when we get there in a fountain of lake water, the battle's already over.

I'm lowering us down towards where the water meets the shore when I see her, hobbling along the shoreline with nothing like her usual speed.

"Brianna!"

She turns towards me and I see the other side of her face, burnt and bloody like nothing I've ever seen before on a living person, not even in the FAYZ.

"Dekka," she gasps when I reach her, falling into me and pressing the unscathed side of her head against my shoulder. "I got her, Dekka. I stopped her. Nobody messes with the Breeze."

"She's hurt! She's hurt bad!" I scream back at Astrid and the others. Then I lean down and scoop her up in my arms. She weighs next to nothing, a complete contradiction to the sheer force of her personality. "You stopped her, Breeze," I whisper as I frantically calculate how long it's going to take me to get her to Clifftop. "These kids all owe you their lives."

"It hurts," she whimpers, reaching up to touch the gaping wound where her left ear used to be. "I-"

"Don't talk. You're going to Lana. She'll help you."

"Don't leave me, Dekka," she says, and I'm so shocked to hear a pleading tone like that coming from her that I look down straight into her hazy, pain-filled eyes.

"I'm not going to leave you, you stupid girl. I'll carry you there like this if I have to."

* * *

"Breeze? Brianna?!"

I yell her name at the top of my voice when she doesn't answer, torn between wanting to stop the van to check on her and knowing I can't wait if I'm going to get her to Lana in time. My death grip on the steering wheel only gets tighter as I quickly glance to the side for a split second and see her slumped unconscious beside me. Then I have to look back at the road, yanking the wheel to avoid the wrecked truck that seems to appear from nowhere.

"Wake up! Don't you dare leave me, Brianna! D'you hear me?! Wake up!"

"I'm awake," she mumbles eventually. "Quit screaming at me. My head hurts."

She tries to sit up, and looks around dazedly for a second before collapsing against me instead of the car door. Blood streams from the side of her head, soaking into my shirt, and I don't know what to do. So much blood. And how much can a girl her size have? How long can she possibly last like this?

"Hold on, Breeze," I tell her desperately. "Don't you dare close your eyes."

"With your driving skills? I might have to," she replies, making me wonder when she became the one trying to make me laugh instead of the other way around.

I lean down and kiss the top of her head without thinking before grimly turning my attention back to the road that will get us to Clifftop.

Not far now. Nearly there.

She won't die.

I won't allow it.

* * *

**_As you've no doubt worked out, I couldn't bring myself to finish it. So there might be another chapter at some point..._**


	7. Chapter 7

**_Firstly, thank you to those of you who commented on the last one. The encouragement means a lot :) Secondly, I know I'm technically pushing canon to its limits in this one (despite how I have my own theory going about why Breeze has such a big reaction to Dekka's confession in Plague), but well, that's why we write fanfiction... _**

I slam my foot on the brake and the car screeches to a halt at the front entrance of Clifftop, skidding along the gravel driveway. I open the door, stupidly expecting Breeze to already be standing impatiently outside like she has been every other time we've been in a car together. But she's not there. She's not there because she's still in the car, slumped against me and bleeding.

"We're here, Breeze." My voice is quiet and shaky. I barely sound like myself. "Brianna, wake up. Brianna!"

But this time she doesn't open her eyes and tell me to stop shouting. This time she doesn't even move. My previously pale grey shirt is now dark red with blood, mine and hers, and it sticks to my skin so I feel it every time I start to move. She's a dead weight against me.

The other kids in the back of the car are awake though, moaning and crying in pain. I should help them. I should get them inside as well, I know that, but my feet take me around to the passenger side of the car almost subconsciously and my brain makes no real effort to stop them. I open the door, reach inside and scoop Brianna into my arms once more.

"Dekka…"

"It's OK, I'm taking you to Lana," I tell her, but by the time I look down at her, she's passed out again.

I take a deep breath and run as fast as I can up the stairs, wishing that for just a few minutes I could swap my power for hers.

* * *

I know which room Lana lives in because I was here myself, back when she was healing me after the bugs that still make me shudder at the mere thought of them, but when I get there, the door's locked. I'm not surprised. Anyone with a still-functioning door and even half a brain cell locks their door in the FAYZ. Clifftop's probably the least wrecked place here and the Healer is a lot of things but stupid isn't one of them.

My first instinct is to use my power to bring the door down. But to do it and not risk flattening the whole place would mean putting Breeze down, and I won't do that. So in the end I kick it with all my strength, and I soon find my desperation to get the only person I've ever truly loved to the only person who can save her life makes me stronger than I thought I was.

The door flies open with my first attempt, smacking into the wall with a deafening crash.

Lana and Sanjit stare open-mouthed at me, and behind them I can see Sinder wearing a very similar expression. At any other time, it'd be funny, but now only one thing matters.

"Don't just stand there," I snarl, striding further into the room. "Do something! Help her!"

"Put her on the bed," replies Lana, snapping out of it quickly like I knew she would. "What happened?"

"Gaia. She was trying to wipe out everyone at the lake. Breeze got in her way."

Lana nods, looking across at Brianna with respect that quickly turns to concern. Then her gaze flicks back to me and she gestures sharply at the bed.

Breeze moans quietly when I go to put her down, delirious with the pain and only semi-conscious. She reaches up and grasps a handful of my shirt like she's never going to let go. I haven't got it in me to pull her hand away.

"Lana-" I begin. My mind's all fuzzy and the room's spinning.

"Sit there," she orders, pointing at the armchair behind me.

I obey her without question or protest, using the last of my strength to turn Brianna around so the Healer can reach the worst of her burns.

"She saved your life, didn't she?" Lana asks, her question almost covering Breeze's pained curse as she places her hand over the wound where her ear used to be.

"Yes. Everyone who got away from Lake Tramonto alive owes their life to my girl," I reply fiercely, only realising what I said when it's too late.

I look down at Breeze so I don't have to meet the Healer's eyes, but I can't make myself take it back. Brianna might not feel for me what I feel for her, but that never did stop me from feeling.

* * *

"You kicked my door down," says the Healer sternly about twenty minutes later when she finally lifts her hand, staring at me across Brianna's sleeping form.

I slowly look up, expecting to see anger. Instead there's something in her usually hard eyes that almost looks like approval and respect.

"I'd have kicked the whole hotel down if I'd had to. Done whatever it took to get her what she needed."

"Because you love her?"

When Lana says it, there's no surprise, no disapproval and none of the disgust my family would have. Her face softens slightly and she rests her hand on my shoulder.

"Because I love her."

"You're hurt," she says, reaching further across and scowling angrily when I pull back. She rarely offers freely either respect or healing for anything that isn't life-threatening, and she's more than a bit intimidating if she gets resistance, even to me.

"It's nothing," I reply quickly, hoping she'll move on and get back to healing Brianna.

"That's why you're bleeding? Because it's nothing?"

I sigh, deciding I haven't got the energy to do anything other than give in, and pull my shirt collar back cautiously. I vaguely remember feeling pain there when Gaia blew the boat up and I wasn't quick enough to avoid the fallout from the explosion, but then I saw Breeze and forgot everything else.

"That 'nothing' looks real painful," observes the Healer dryly, tracing the deep gash that runs from the top of my shoulder and across my chest to my other side with narrowed eyes. "There are lots of spare rooms. You should get some rest while you can. Breeze is sleeping now. I'll come back and work on her some more in a minute, then when I'm done it'll be your turn."

"I'm fine. I'm not leaving her," I reply instantly, wrapping my arms tighter around Brianna, but Lana's already started to stand like she knew what I'd say before I'd said it. "There were other kids in the car," I continue. "They're hurt bad."

"I'll get Sanjit and the others to bring them up here. I'll do what I can but Breeze has to be number one. There aren't many of us who can take Gaia on. We need her. We need both of you."

"Thank you," I say, speaking under my breath and forgetting that not much gets past ears almost as sharp as Patrick's.

"The last time you thanked me, I'd just healed her hands after the plastering. I didn't understand then, but I do now."

"You do now," I echo, and she nods once.

"I'll be back," she says as she reaches for the ruined door. "To heal you as well as her."

I'd have argued with her, but my brain can't seem to function enough to find the words. Then I know no more.

* * *

I wake to the sound of raised voices outside and a sharp pain in my injured shoulder that somehow flares, fades and then repeats over and over again.

"Dekka, wake up."

The pain flares again and this time it repeats so quickly it doesn't really have time to fade. Then I remember everything and my eyes fly open.

"About time," a now just about conscious Breeze says, and I trace the source of my pain to her hand, which she's now using to grip my upper arm with a reassuring level of strength instead of to tap my shoulder. "I thought you were never going to wake up."

"Is that Edilio?" I ask, straining to identify the voices still drifting in from outside.

"I think so. He must have heard what happened."

I nod and then turn to look closely at her. Her burns are still horrific but better than they were, and nothing seems to be bleeding now, not freely anyway. Her eyes are hazy though, like she might pass out again any second, and when she lifts her head from my shoulder she quickly has to return it.

"How do you feel?"

"How d'you think?" she retorts, speaking with something approaching her usual sass.

I can't help smiling, especially when she smiles back.

"Why am I here, Dekka?"

"So Lana can heal you, Breeze. Don't you remember?" I ask softly, hoping she isn't hurt even more than I thought.

"I don't mean that. I mean _here_," she says, gesturing down at me and the armchair.

"I tried to put you down but you were out of it and you wouldn't let me go," I answer, as unable to look her in the eye as I am able to stop myself from wincing when she puts her hand down right on my bad shoulder. "Lana said you could use the bed if you want."

She thinks for a second and shakes her head slightly. "No, I'm good here."

"OK, Breeze," I reply, far too exhausted to process anything properly. All I know is that I don't want to let her go and she's not asking me to, which is more than good enough for me right now. Or anytime really, if I'm honest.

"What happened to you?" she asks suddenly, her voice about as close to anxious as I've ever heard it as she pulls the collar of my shirt back instead of waiting for me to do it myself like the Healer did. "You're bleeding. Why didn't Lana heal you?"

"Gaia blew up the boat I was sheltering by. Part of it hit me and it was kind of on fire. But it's just a scratch. It's nothing."

"Kind of on fire?! Nothing?!" she hisses, yanking my shirt again until the top button gives in and it opens further. "Jeez, Dekka, a bit higher and it'd have been your neck."

She's seen a lot worse, she's _had _a lot worse, so I've no idea why she's reacting so much. Maybe my wound is actually bad and the whole bug thing distorted my perception of pain so much I don't realise.

"Stop fussing, _Mom_," I reply, delighting in finally having the chance to get my own back on her.

She scowls at me. "I'm not your mom, Dekka," she retorts, echoing my words from earlier.

I open my mouth to reply, but before I can begin to form words, she reaches out and drags a shaking and cold finger along the unblemished skin of my collarbone above the wound. I suddenly have no idea what I was going to say.

"Dekka-"

I shake my head firmly, and even though it's the last thing in the world I truly want, I pull the blood-soaked fabric back into place. Her scowl deepens further. Then it abruptly fades entirely.

"I don't feel so good," she murmurs, sagging back against me.

"Lana!"

* * *

Brianna is still unconscious when Jack arrives, carrying an injured kid in his arms and calling for Lana. The Healer looks up without taking her hand off the side of Breeze's head, nodding in the direction of the spare bed.

"There are more kids," says the clearly traumatised boy. "I'll go and fetch them."

"You're good for something then," I snap, and his eyes widen as he notices me, sitting up against the headboard of Lana's bed with Brianna beside me. "Coward."

"Not now, Dekka," barks Lana, interrupting before I can carry on. "It seems to me like you're winning anyway," she adds, looking pointedly down at the way Brianna's fallen asleep with her head resting on my thigh.

"I…"

I want to tell her it isn't about that, that Brianna isn't some prize in a competition, that I'd despise Jack's lack of courage even if he hadn't been the boy who kissed her. But I can't, because really everything's about Breeze. She's all I have, in the FAYZ or out of it, and if I'm going to lose her to someone then it'd better be to someone who deserves her more than Traitor Jack ever could.

"I'll keep working on Breeze," says Lana, almost kindly by her standards. "Go and get some sleep. You're dead on your feet and you're no good to her like that."

"Fine," I reply, finally defeated. "But if she asks for me then you get me, right? Straight away. I told her I wouldn't leave her."

* * *

"Dekka? What's going on?" she mumbles sleepily, her good eye staring searchingly. "What time is it? How long was I out for? I thought I heard Jack, but how did he get hurt? Last I heard, he was being a wimp and he wouldn't fight."

"Slow down, Breeze," I reply, sitting forwards on the chair and regretting it when my back protests at having to move after being in the same position for so long. "You've been out for a few hours. Jack brought the rest of the kids he drove here from the lake inside for Lana. Astrid's called a meeting in town. Edilio's going to fight Gaia and I'm fighting with him. I said I'd go back and help decide what to do, but I was waiting for you to wake up before I left again. To make sure you're OK."

"I've told you a million times, the Breeze is always OK," she replies, grinning back at me with all her usual swagger despite her only barely healed burns. "You shouldn't have waited. At least one of us needs to know what's going on. You should be there. If Lana ever gets back here then she can finish doing her thing and I'll be there with you. Then Gaia will get what's coming to her."

I shake my head slowly, unable to find words to say what I'm thinking, unable to tell her that I'd always wait for her, that no matter what happens, I'll always put her first.

"I'm sorry, Dekka," she says, unexpectedly changing the subject at her usual alarming rate. "You've waited with me but when you needed me, I left you. There, I've said it," she continues before I can interrupt. "Don't expect me to say it again though."

"What made you say it the first time?" I ask her, feeling all thoughts of Astrid's meeting and Edilio and fighting going to the back of my mind without any effort at all.

"Something Lana said. About loyalty. And not caring what other people think."

"What? I don't understand. What's Lana got to do with anything?"

"Dekka, I need you to do something for me. Before it all goes to hell again."

"Anything, Breeze. You know that."

"Kiss me."

I stare back at her, more totally lost for words than I've ever been before. I don't know what I was expecting her to say but I know it wasn't that.

"I know I'm not that pretty right now," she continues, her words coming out in a rush. "But I was figuring you wouldn't care."

"Brianna-"

"You always call me Brianna in that voice when you're mad at me. But I thought it's what you wanted."

"And what do you want?"

"I don't know. That's the whole point," she replies flatly, rolling her eyes at me like it's the most obvious thing in the world and she can't believe I don't understand.

"I'm not a toy, Brianna. Don't play."

"I'm not playing. Or not like that. I thought I wanted to kiss Jack, but when I did, I didn't feel anything. I just thought… I just thought that if I kissed you then I'd know. I'd know if, you know…if I could ever love you like you love me."

"You're a special kind of messed up, you know that, right?" I reply, trying not to smile at her Breezy version of logic.

"That's why you love me," she sings back, and suddenly that look and that voice is enough. She nearly died. Either of us could die at any time.

I sigh, my mind made up as I force myself not to care about how I'll feel if she rejects me. She must see my decision in my eyes because her face is millimetres from mine before I can even move.

When it comes to it in a way I only ever dreamed it would, it's too much for me. I didn't want to kiss her back properly. She's too confused and too beaten up and doesn't really know what she's asking and the last thing in the world I want is to lose her again. But in the end I can't stop myself. I've been through too much and I haven't got the strength left. I kiss her with everything I've got, grasping her hair on the side that wasn't burnt away and battling with her for dominance in a way I know Jack wouldn't have had it in him to do.

She starts to pull away some indeterminable time later, and though I can feel her eyes on me, I can't bring myself to look back at her. The floor's safer. The floor isn't going to reject me. The floor isn't going to tell me no.

"Well that wasn't like kissing Jack," is the first thing she says, making me laugh before I realise what I'm doing, and when she joins in, I laugh all the more.

I look at her then, and there's no trace of fear on her flushed and still confused face, no trace of the rejection I'd been waiting for and dreading.

"Obviously," I reply, my subconscious deciding for me that if it's got this far then it's time to be honest with her and as open as I ever am with anyone. "I love you. He doesn't."

"But-"

"He's a boy and girls are supposed to make out with boys? If that's what you're thinking then say it, Brianna. The people outside are probably going to drop more nukes on us if Gaia doesn't do the job for them and kill us first, so if we're going to have this conversation then talk."

"I'm the Breeze. I do what I want. Screw other people and what they think."

"And what do you want?" I ask her for what feels like the millionth time.

"Out of here so I can fight. To kill Gaia. To start running and never stop. To be star guest on Ellen, obviously. And to feel like I felt when you kissed me all the time. But I know I can't."

My first instinct is to ask her why not, but I'm the responsible one, because God knows nobody could ever call Brianna responsible, so I stop myself and let her carry on.

"I'm just a kid, Dekka. A kid with the most awesome alter-ego in the universe-"

"And a never-ending supply of modesty," I cut in, trying to make it easier for her.

"That too," she replies with a grin, but then the serious face I'm so unused to seeing is back. "I mean it. All this…the FAYZ and the gaiaphage and Diana having a baby right in front of me…it's…well, that was disgusting," she continues, before rolling her eyes when I raise my eyebrows at the abrupt return of her immaturity in the middle of a speech that tells me she's leaving the child she used to be further behind every day. "It's too much."

"Is this too much?" I ask, fearing her answer as I look down at my arm across her lap, at the way she somehow ended up sitting on me instead of the bed.

"No," she says fiercely. "But I don't know what this is."

"Honestly, Brianna, neither do I. I'm still a kid myself really. So how about not trying to work it out?"

"Sounds like a plan," she replies eventually, and instead of moving like I expect her to, she shuffles around and rests her head on my shoulder. "Wait 'til we've saved the world first, right?"

When I look down at her face, both her good eye and her burnt one are closed as she sleepily brings her hands up and grasps the collar of my jacket.

"One day I'll get tired of being your mattress, girl," I growl with mock anger that couldn't be any further from my true feelings.

"Nah, you won't," she mumbles, not moving a millimetre. "And you were born grown-up, Dekka Talent. I don't think you've ever been a kid," she adds, laughing when I growl at her.

"Aren't you supposed to be back at Perdido Beach?" comes a voice from the now-open door.

I turn around to look guiltily at Lana but Brianna doesn't move, doesn't even raise her head from my shoulder. I'd forgotten about that. If I'm honest then I'd forgotten Astrid, Albert, Edilio and even Gaia existed. For a short time there was nothing in the world but Brianna and this room. Now all I wish is that it could stay that way.

"Let's go then," she says as the Healer closes the door silently behind herself.

"No way. You're not leaving here until you're properly healed."

"You can't be the badass sisters on your own," she replies, all traces of sleep a distant memory at the prospect of another fight. "I'm the best fighter we've got and you know it."

"That's your secret, isn't it? I always knew it. It's that modesty we were talking about that makes you run so fast."

"I'm not messing around. If I don't fight then kids will die, kids who don't deserve to die. Edilio, Quinn, Lana. You, Dekka. You can't stand alone, I won't let you. I have to fight."

I forcibly push back the part of me that screams in triumph at her words and stare back at her.

"We're not fighting now, Breeze. We're just planning. And you know listening to Astrid only pisses you off. I'll come back later and tell you what the plan is. When you're better you'll be part of it. You have my word."

"And you'd better keep it."

* * *

I don't see how we can defeat Gaia. Even with Breeze and Sam and Caine it would be difficult, but without them it seems impossible. That's why I had to come back to Clifftop. I have to see her one more time before, as she put it, it all goes to hell again.

"Saint Astrid was here," she says as soon as she sees me.

She's lying on a couch in Lana's room, her feet on one of its arms like she owns the place. Typical Breeze.

"I know," I reply hesitantly, half-expecting her to run away again or at the very least for things to be awkward between us. But they're not, and she doesn't run. "Gaia's on her way. We're going to fight. I have to fight…"

She springs up with something like her old super-speed and is in front of me virtually instantly.

"Your burns look better," I tell her, and they do, sort of, although her left eye is still swollen shut. I really only say it because I feel like I have to say something, anything to avoid silence.

"Lana says I can't fight yet. But I can, Dekka. I have to."

"You might have to in the end. But Gaia will have to go through me first."

"You don't protect me. Nobody protects me. I'm the Breeze!"

"I've always known who you are," I say softly, my vision going blurry with tears I struggle to hold back.

"You'll die," she whimpers, sounding a lot like Brianna and not a lot like the Breeze I'm used to. "You'll all die."

"I told you before, I'm tough. So are Edilio and the others. I'll be back."

"Dekka!" calls Lana's voice from the other side of the door. "Edilio sent a kid up here to fetch you. He says it's time."

I close my eyes and try to stop my heart from racing.

"I hate goodbyes," says Brianna, taking a sharp intake of breath. "Don't die, Dekka."

Then she closes the distance between us, gripping my upper arms tightly to hold herself up on the tips of her toes as her lips brush mine for a split second before the door flies open and she's gone.

The sadness on Lana's face when I look out into the corridor and find the Healer instead of Brianna says it all.

"Go after her. Talk to her. Please. She listens to you. Don't let her fight until she's healed."

"That girl does what she wants," replies the Healer with a slight smile. "She always did. There are only two people who truly register in Breeze's mind. One of them is off God knows where with Caine and I'm looking at the other one."

"Please, Lana."

"She'll fight sooner or later, you know that. No matter how hurt she is."

"I know," I say, sighing resignedly.

How could I not know? How could I not know when that's one of the reasons I fell for her in the first place?

* * *

Her last words to me were 'don't die', but right now I wish I had. What could I possibly have left to live for when I'm here looking down at her body? How can I live when she is dead?

I told the other kids I'd kill them if they touched her, but when I came back they'd moved her onto the bed inside the house I call mine. I try but I can't get mad at them. I can't make myself feel anything now.

Sinder took the braids out of her hair and parted it differently to hide her burns, and she'd dressed her in a clean shirt to hide the massive wound in her chest where her brave and fearless heart used to be. But the shirt was pink, that pale and insipid pink Breeze loathed, so in the end I swapped it for a purple one of mine that was always a little bit small. It's miles too big for Brianna, but I'd only ever kept it because she said she liked the colour, so I leave it anyway.

Afterwards I cry all over again. I don't think I've stopped crying since my world ended. I don't think I'll ever be able to stop. Without her, I don't think I want to.

* * *

After Sam came back, Edilio asked me to go around town, trying to pry more kids away from the wall to join the battle against Gaia. I went. I didn't want to, but I went for him, because he asked me and because he's grieving too. I couldn't keep up the pretence for long though, and I was back in my old bedroom before I realised it, kneeling on the floor beside the bed, staring at Breeze's body like I could will her to wake up.

But she won't wake up. I knew that then and I know it now.

They're burying kids in the plaza again. I went out to the place just outside town that Brianna found for me to hide the car I taught myself to drive in and I saw them when I was on my way back. They'd stopped and looked expectantly across at me, but I'd glared at them and kept going. My Brianna isn't going in the ground with the rest of them. She won't be buried alongside the likes of Zil Sperry. I won't let that happen.

When I get back to my house, I quickly go up the stairs, carrying the can of gas I'd hurriedly siphoned from the car with me just in case another kid is stupid enough to try and steal it. I doubt any of them would. Most of them were already scared of me before. By now the whole FAYZ will know I've got nothing left to lose.

The bedroom's exactly as I left it. I can hear the voices of kids shouting in the street and smell the smoke from the fire that isn't as distant as it was before. I haven't got much time left, but I still perch on the edge of the bed to look at her one last time.

"I'm sorry you were too quick for me. I'm sorry I didn't save you."

I've played those few short seconds over and over again in my mind so many times since they happened. I've tried to imagine myself pushing her out of Gaia's way or cancelling gravity to send her flying upwards and out of reach. I've spent hours wishing I could go back in time and trade places. I'd give anything to hear her laugh again, to see her roll her eyes at me, to see her flick her hair back and breeze away.

"I hope this is what you'd want," I tell her, reaching for the can. Then I change my mind and put it back on the floor. I lean forwards and kiss her forehead. "You'd laugh and tell me to stop being pathetic if you could see me now, right? You'd tell me to go out there and kick Gaia's butt. And I will. Because I love you, Breeze. I always will."

I can barely see through my tears as I go around the house, pouring the gas onto curtains and furniture in every room. When I light the last match I have before throwing it to the ground just inside the front door, I'm almost blinded by the fire that spreads quicker than I thought possible.

"Fire! Fire!" yell some of the nearby kids, but when they see me, they stop, almost like they know.

They probably melt back into the shadows and leave, or maybe they stay to watch me mourn. I don't know. I don't care.

I stare up at the house and watch it burn.

* * *

"Some of my guys told me about the fire," says a voice behind me. Edilio. I know it's him but I don't turn around. He doesn't need to see my tears. I don't want him to see them. "They were scared. Some sparks set stuff alight further down the street."

I shrug my still-shaking shoulders, staring unseeingly at the pile of ash before me.

"They contained them though. No one got hurt."

I shrug my shoulders again.

"This is your house, Dekka. They said you did it on purpose. Why?"

"Because I couldn't put Breeze in the ground," I answer eventually, my voice trembling as much as my body no matter how hard I try to control it. "She hated being shut in and trapped."

"Breeze…? She was in there?"

"I thought Sam would do it, but he's got his own priorities. Or maybe he just couldn't."

Edilio sits on the ground beside me, and we're silent for several minutes. I wonder if he's thinking about Roger. If anyone understands what I'm feeling then it's Edilio. I should say something, say I'm sorry or whatever it is that people are supposed to say. But I can't find words and the silence continues.

"Gaia's coming," he says eventually. "We can't wait for Sam or Caine or even God to save us. We have to fight, even if we're doomed whatever we do. Will you fight with me?"

"Do you think you can get Gaia into the church?"

"I think so. She'll go for it anyway. To use Caine's power properly, she needs decent missiles, and I've had everything but the church cleared. But why?"

"Because I'll be there waiting for her. And I'll bring the whole lot down on her head and see if she survives _that_," I reply, my voice a vicious hiss that surprises even me. "For Brianna."

"That's a suicide mission, Dekka," he says, shocked but perhaps not entirely surprised. "Breeze wouldn't want you to do that."

"I can do it. And if I don't, if I die, then…" I shrug my shoulders. "My list of things to live for isn't exactly taking up much space right now, is it?"

* * *

_**There will probably be a final chapter, because I think Dekka deserved more of an Epilogue/Aftermath than she got... Talk to me if you want :) **_


	8. Chapter 8

_**I couldn't resist doing an epilogue - I took liberties with Breeze's backstory (and various other aspects of the plot!), I know, but in my head her dad's awesome...**_

* * *

The voice in my head that's screaming at me to move is hers. That's the only reason I open my eyes and hold back the cry of pain that threatens to escape me as soon as I move. I ignore it, sitting up and looking for her.

But then I see the wreckage of the church all around me, barely visible through the smoke and the fire that surrounds the altar. It makes me remember, and suddenly I know she's gone.

The voice shouts again, yelling at me to move, and though I now know it's nothing more than my own subconscious, it still speaks with Breeze's voice. My head hurts and a big part of me just wants to lie back down on the altar and go to sleep forever. But Brianna wouldn't lie down and die. She'd fight. She _did _fight, so I can't quit either. Not when I know what she'd say if she was still here.

I raise my hands and aim my palms down, clearing a path through the fire and following it.

I make it as far as the plaza before I pass out again.

* * *

There are bright lights everywhere. And noise. So much noise, but different noise, noise I haven't heard for so long. Loud voices, the dull buzz of what sounds like a car engine underneath sirens wailing. I sit up instantly, raising my hands and pulling violently away from the force that tries to hold me down.

When my eyes adjust, I see a man staring down at me. A middle-aged man. I don't understand. That's impossible. Unless…

"The barrier's gone," I say, still struggling to get up.

The man nods. "A couple of hours ago."

"Stop. I have to get out."

"We're taking you to hospital, Dekka. You're pretty beaten up."

"How do you know who I am?" I retort, pulling further away until I hit what must be the side of the ambulance.

The woman driving looks back with a concerned expression and shouts to her partner, but he shakes his head and tells her to keep going.

"Your father identified you when we found you in the plaza."

"My father?"

"You'll see your parents when we get to the hospital."

I shrug my shoulders and say nothing. It's been a long time since I cared what my parents think and longer still since I missed them. All I can think is that Breeze died less than a day before the FAYZ ended. If she'd just stayed put until she recovered like I told her to then she'd have lived.

Then we'd have got out together, and whether she'd loved me like I loved her or not, I wouldn't feel so totally alone. I wouldn't feel like everything I went through was for nothing.

* * *

When I was discharged from hospital, I was sent home with my parents. I'd told everyone, from doctors to nurses to the psychiatrists who insisted on visiting me virtually daily even though I told them nothing that I could live on my own, but they didn't listen. I'm a child, they told me. A child? After the FAYZ? As if. But out here I _am _a child, legally anyway. Some of them said they wished they could help me but the law's the law. Others, especially the psychiatrists, see my refusal to talk about what happened as further sign of my mental instability and basically told me it's either my parents or a special institution.

"Dekka, get down here!" yells my dad from the bottom of the stairs. "You'll miss your appointment."

"Good," I mutter under my breath and checking my watch.

I think I must have set a record for getting through shrinks over the past few weeks. My mom has driven me into town virtually every day since I came home and I've sat in the same office for hours on end while they've tried to make me talk. Nothing they did worked. The only time I've ever spoken so much as a word was when one woman asked me if I wanted to talk about Brianna. The memory of upending her desk and storming out of the room is one of the few things that makes me smile.

The sound of a car pulling up outside the house makes me look up. Good. They're on time.

I grab my bag off the bed and swing it onto my shoulder at the same time as Dad yells my name again. That's the only time he speaks to me now, when he's yelling. To start with I thought the FAYZ and everything that happened might have given him time to think, to realise I'm still his daughter, but I was wrong. We might as well be strangers now, and Mom hasn't the strength or the will to go against him. There's nothing for me here. There will never be anything for me here.

"Miss Talent?" asks the uniformed man on the doorstep, and when I nod, he holds a set of keys out towards me. "I just need you to sign here. The payment's all gone through."

"Payment?" interrupts Dad. "Payment for what?"

"The car, Dad," I say, nodding in the direction of the black SUV on the drive and trying not to smile at the thought that this is just the kind of recklessness Breeze would have loved. "I'm going to the Pismo Beach memorial."

"I already told you, you're not going. If this is about that girl again…" he snarls disgustedly.

"You can't stop me," I reply, lifting the keys. "And her name was Brianna."

"Dekka? Honey? Are you coming back?"

I turn to look back at Mom. She's standing at the foot of the stairs, her eyes never leaving me. That's the first time she's called me 'honey' since before Dad sent me to Coates. I've never seen her look so confused.

"I don't know, Mom," I reply honestly. "Not for a while."

"Dekka Talent, if you walk out of this house then you won't be coming back!"

Dad, obviously. I lift my bag higher onto my shoulder and walk past the stunned man who brought the car and is still standing on the doorstep.

I don't look back.

* * *

Once there was rumour of a Hollywood movie and Astrid started appearing on the television with Todd Chance and Jennifer Brattle, they organised a memorial in what's left of Perdido Beach as well.

I leave the centre of town long before virtually everyone else who attended the service. A lot of the people here are FAYZ survivors and their families, and then the grieving families of those who didn't get out, but for every one of them there are at least two reporters or tourists, all clamouring for the latest exclusive or snapshot to show their friends back home. What happened here has become a tourist attraction, a media circus, and the mere thought of that makes my skin crawl with disgust and anger in equal measure.

"Hey, Dekka," says a voice behind me, and I turn to see Sinder smiling shyly.

She's with her parents, her clothes are neat and clean and her hair shines in the sun, but that isn't what I notice first. What I notice first is her eyes. Virtually all of the FAYZ kids have those eyes, haunted eyes that have seen more than any person should.

That's when I know I have to get out of here. There's nothing for me here now. And maybe that means there's nothing for me anywhere, but I can't bring myself to care.

I start running and don't stop for anyone.

* * *

I keep going without stopping until I reach Lake Tramonto, sometimes running but more often walking or stumbling down the stony path. The big clean up they've started in Perdido Beach hasn't reached here yet. The burnt out wreck of our settlement is still here. If I close my eyes I can still smell the fires burning and hear the kids screaming.

I walk closer. I can't stop crying. I can't see through the tears streaming down my face. I sink to the floor, hoping there's no one here to see me fall.

* * *

It's started to go dark before I realise I've been here for hours. I must have fallen asleep but I don't remember. No one found me. No one came after me. I suppose there isn't anyone to care if I'm there or not, not now the FAYZ has ended and she's gone.

For the millionth time I look up and expect to see her standing there, to feel her kick my leg impatiently to get me to hurry up. For the millionth time I look up and see nothing.

"Why did you have to leave me, girl?" I ask the shadow of her that exists only in my mind. "Why?"

I shake my head and reach into my bag for the single white lily I bought before the memorial service started. It's got a card tied to it, one of those the florists put there to trick grieving people into thinking there's a way to condense everything they're feeling into a few short words they're capable of writing down.

I'd been planning to write something even if I didn't know what. But I'd meant to put the lily on the official memorial plaque like so many of the others did as well. I guess that's not going to happen now either.

I grasp the stem of the flower and angrily pull my hand back, but before I can throw it in the lake, I stop and stare across at the tree a few metres down from where I'm sitting. How many times did she slouch against that tree, waiting for me to catch up with her only to breeze ahead all over again?

I spend a couple of seconds writing and then place the lily at the base of the tree, walking backwards until I'm too far away to read what I put. I don't need to see it. I'll always remember it, until the day I die.

'In loving memory of Brianna, the Breeze with a capital 'B'.'

* * *

I didn't really want to go back into town, but I had to because I left the car there. As I get close, I hope all the people have gone now, and mostly they have, but when I reach the plaza and see the small family leaving the newly reopened Italian restaurant, I know it's them. Breeze's family, or should I say her mother, half-sisters and the step-father she called Jerkface so easily and freely that I never thought to ask her his real name.

He's talking loudly to another man, a reporter, I'm guessing, laughing and joking until a woman appears with a camera. Then his obviously carefully perfected 'sad and grieving' face falls back into place instantly and he puts his arm around his wife. The pretence of grief vanishes as soon as the camera does, and he's already moved on with his conversation.

I know I should carry on walking, but when the small group heads towards me, I somehow can't make my feet move. I want to talk to her. I want to make sure she knows the truth about her daughter, so I stare back at Jerkface and Brianna's mom until they finally see me and stop.

"You're Dekka, aren't you? Thank you for writing to me," says the woman who looks absolutely nothing like Brianna.

"I think she'd have wanted you to know the truth," I reply cautiously, constantly watching Jerkface out of the corner of my eye. "Thank you for the photo."

She looks sidelong at her husband. The look she gets back tells me he didn't know about that and he isn't too happy.

"None of it seems possible," she says. "But I saw her. I saw Brianna run. And she was on the television."

"Come on, Martha," interrupts Jerkface before she can carry on. "It's time to go."

With a slight nod, Brianna's mom walks after him without another word. I'd considered for a second that Breeze might have got her personality from her mom if she didn't get her looks, but there's nothing of the recklessly brave girl I loved in the weak-willed woman in front of me.

And that means there's only one place left for me to go.

* * *

Her real father lives in Beaumont, a mere half an hour away from where her mom still lives with her second husband in Banning. The houses that line the street aren't as big and impressive, but the one I've parked opposite looks bright and cheerful, with pots under the windows that are overflowing with flowers.

I sit there for so long that all the people I saw leave for work have started to return, and still I can't find the courage to get out of the car and knock the door. Breeze's parents divorced when she was seven, and she never saw her dad after that. He left and she never knew why, and for a while she hated him for abandoning her when she'd always thought he loved her as much as she loved him.

Then the man who became her step-father appeared on the scene shortly after her eighth birthday, and she knew there was more to the story than she'd been told. She told me how many times she'd asked her mom and how many times she got the same unsatisfactory answers. When she knew there was nobody else around to hear, she told me how much she missed her dad, how much she used to wish he'd turn up at Coates and take her away.

Then a knock on the window interrupts my thoughts and I jump back, laughing at myself inside because I still instinctively raise my hands like I'm going to be able to do what I could do in the FAYZ.

There's a man standing on the sidewalk, and though I only saw him from a distance just after the wall came down, I'd know him anywhere. He has the same hazel eyes as Breeze, the same slightly wild strawberry blonde hair. He's the reason I'm here, but now it's come to it, I don't know what to say or do and want nothing more than to run away.

"I think you're here to see me," he says, opening the car door slowly and calmly as if he knows I'm thinking of bolting.

"I'm Dekka," I manage eventually, all the ways I thought of explaining my presence outside his house deserting me totally.

"I know," he replies. "Do you want to come inside?"

I nod, and when he smiles at me, it's with her smile, that mischievous, cocky grin that used to take my breath away.

The inside of the house is as nice as the outside. There's a shelf in the hallway lined with photographs and Brianna's in every one, a baby in the first and the girl I knew at Coates in the last.

"You left her. How have you got those?" I ask flatly, gesturing at the photos at the end of the row.

He doesn't reply for a long time, giving me chance to realise that I probably have no right to talk to him like that, especially not in his own home. I should care, like I should care about so many things, but Gaia took away my reason to care so I don't. Grief is the only emotion my body and mind know how to do properly now.

"Left her?" he says, laughing the most humourless laugh I've ever heard. "I loved her. She was my daughter, my little girl. I didn't leave her."

"She told me about the divorce. About how one day you were there and the next you weren't."

"I suppose it would have seemed that way to her." He's crying openly now, and when I follow him into the kitchen, he sits down at the table and puts his head in his hands to hide his face. "I tried to see her every day. I waited outside the house, the school, I even followed her to the mall. I spoke to her a couple of times that way, but then her step-father came along and convinced her mother to get a restraining order. I lost all rights to see her and they hired someone to follow me. I tried everything but I couldn't get close. The last time I tried, they had me put in jail."

"How?" I ask disbelievingly. "You were just a dad trying to see his kid."

"Martha, Brianna's mom, told the cops stuff, made up lies about how I abused her and made her life unbearable, hers and Brianna's. I didn't. I swear to God I didn't," he says, almost desperately, like he's pleading with me to believe him.

I do. Whatever was or wasn't or might have been between Breeze and me, she told me things she'd never have told anyone else. If there'd been anything like that going on then I'd have known. And I reckon I was always a good judge of character and the FAYZ made me even better. Between the man in front of me and the step-father? I know who I believe.

"I don't know how but they made it stick," he continues. "Bribed the cops, I guess. Either way, I never spoke to Brianna again, not until the very end, up by the barrier."

"You saw her when she was in the FAYZ?"

"I got one of the other kids to get a message to her, then drove up to the barrier in the National Park in the middle of the night. I knew she'd be able to find me because of the way she could…" he trails off, as if he's searching for the right word.

"Breeze," I supply. "That's what she used to call it. That's why she was the Breeze."

"I had a notepad, a pencil and a torch and she wrote with a stick on the ground. I told her the truth about what happened when she was a kid. She told me that before the FAYZ came, her mom was going to take her home and let her go back to Nicolet. And she talked about the FAYZ and the power and something called the gaiaphage. I've heard that word so many times from so many kids."

"It's a long and very complicated story. I don't totally get all of it and I was there."

"She talked about people, too. She talked about you."

"Really?"

"She called you awesome. She said she loved you but she didn't know how, in what way, I mean. And said you were well-known for, how did she phrase it again…epic badassery? Is that even a word?"

"Kind of," I reply, torn between laughter and tears for what feels like the millionth time in the past hour alone.

"I've spent the past couple of months travelling around everywhere, talking to all the FAYZ kids I could find. Because I had to know the truth. And after all of it, the one person I wanted to speak to more than any other turned up on my doorstep this morning."

"I understand. If I can answer your questions then I will."

"You know, I've spoken to more kids than I can remember, and each one told me different things that just seemed to get crazier and crazier. But there were two things they all said the same: that Sam loved Astrid and Dekka loved Brianna. That never changed."

I look down at the floor, waiting for his outrage without knowing how I'll react when it inevitably comes.

"Tell me about her, Dekka. Tell me about the things she said and did. Everyone talks about the Breeze but I want to know about Brianna."

"Brianna _was _the Breeze. All that crazy brave stuff she did, that was who she was, even before the FAYZ."

"You expected me to hate you, didn't you?" he asks, changing the subject as quickly as his daughter used to. "I could see it on your face."

"My own father hates me. Why should you be different?"

"Because, forgive me for saying it, but I'm not a narrow-minded bigot like your father obviously is. And because you were there for my daughter when I couldn't be. I'm more grateful to you than I could ever say."

That's it then. There's something in his words, in his Brianna-like openness, that makes me crumble just like I did back at Lake Tramonto after the memorial. I cry for some indeterminable time, and it's only when I stop that I realise he was crying too.

* * *

I stay in Beaumont for a couple of days, but after I leave I don't know where to go next. I can't face my parents, and I'm not sure I would be welcome even if I wanted to go back to the place I used to call home. So instead I keep driving, sleeping in the car because I can't bear the thought of having someone recognise me if I try to stay in a hotel.

In the end, I start to think I'm going crazy. I see thousands of people going about their lives and it's almost like I imagined the whole thing, that the FAYZ never really happened.

But deep inside I know it did. Because I remember what it felt like to raise my hands and make the ground shake. Because I remember those bugs crawling inside me and eating me alive. And because I remember Brianna's kiss so vividly that it couldn't have been anything other than real. The good and the bad, that's what I told her about Penny's visions once, and the same is true about the FAYZ.

That's how I know it was real.

* * *

In the end it's an old newspaper abandoned on a park bench that takes me to San Luis Obispo. Roger's here, brought to the hospital after being found wandering the Stefano Rey long after the FAYZ wall fell. If he's here then Edilio will be here too, and suddenly all I can think of is seeing someone who understands what I'm feeling.

I walk inside quickly, trying to look like I know where I'm going. It isn't visiting time, so I doubt I'll be allowed in openly. But then I see him, or the back of him anyway, as he leans against a vending machine that clearly isn't cooperating.

"It just isn't Pepsi and Nutella, is it, Edilio?" I say, furious with myself because my voice is shaking with the effort of holding back tears I didn't think I had left to shed.

"Dekka? What are you doing here? I thought you'd gone home with your folks."

"I guess that just didn't work out," I reply. "It turns out not even the FAYZ could fix my family."

"Their loss," he says, his eyes telling me he understands at least part of why I couldn't stay with my parents. "How're you holding up?"

"I'm fine," I lie, lifting the bag I'd brought in with me. "I heard Roger was here. So I got him some proper food."

Edilio turns his back on the vending machine with a smile and leads me quickly down a long, sterile-looking corridor.

"Quick," he hisses, holding open a door about halfway down. "You shouldn't be here. They only let me stay because they got fed up of tripping over me when I wouldn't leave." Then he turns away and speaks to someone inside. "Dekka's here. And she brought pizza."

"Some people are just naturally awesome," is Roger's reply as I step into the room and Edilio closes the door behind us.

* * *

We sit there all afternoon, eating pizza and talking. If it wasn't for the food, the room and the general lack of chaos and destruction then it would almost be like being back in the FAYZ. That thought is far more relaxing than it should be considering what we lived through.

I tell Edilio and Roger about leaving my parents' house, about driving to the memorials and going to see Brianna's dad, talking more than I think I ever have before, but when Roger asks me what I'm going to do next, I stare silently back at him. I don't know what to say. Do next? Is there a next? Can there ever be a next for me?

"Sam's mom emancipated him, you know?" says Edilio mildly, ending the awkward silence. "He's legally an adult now."

"Really? Good for Sam. I can just imagine my dad's response to that one."

"Two years is a long time if he can't accept who you are, Dekka."

"Eighteen months," I retort.

"Whatever. But you have to live your life while you have the chance. The FAYZ taught me that. Don't wait for your eighteenth, Dekka."

"I…I-"

"This is for you," says Roger, holding the rolled piece of paper he's been working on for the past hour or so out to me. "Payment for the food."

I stare back at him incredulously, but he doesn't pull his hand back until I give in and take the paper. When I unroll it, I'm lost for words.

"I…"

"From memory, I know, but I think it's right."

The simple pencil drawing I can't take my eyes off is of Brianna, not of the child in the photo I still have in my bag, but of the young woman I remember from the end of the FAYZ. It's of the Breeze I loved, and I don't know what to say.

"She'd want you to live, Dekka. You know that."

* * *

In the end I go back to Beaumont. I don't know why really, only that it feels right and somehow closer to her. My dad finds me eventually, although he doesn't seem to want me back any more than I want to return home.

Emancipation's a non-starter though. The idea of the news reporters dragging us and my so-called lifestyle choice through the headlines is far too much for him to bear.

I don't push it. I haven't got the energy. For anything. Ever again.

* * *

Aftermath One

I thought I heard her shouting to me when I regained consciousness in the burning ruins of the Perdido Beach church, but it's only when I hear her again several months later that I allow myself to acknowledge that my subconscious isn't letting her go any more than I can forget her in my waking reality.

"Get off your butt and do something," she says, and if I close my eyes I can almost see her, standing in front of me with her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face.

I shake my head and look around the apartment I bought with some of the money I got from doing the small number of interviews I consented to give after the FAYZ ended. I hide in here. I shut myself away from the world and its scrutiny. I know it and I'm ashamed.

But I hate being recognised when I go out. I hate the fame that Breeze would have loved.

"Dekka! Can I come in?!"

"I'm in here!" I yell back.

Brianna's dad is probably my only regular visitor. I guess we've become friends of sorts, united in our grief before anything else. He's a good man, but I can't help missing the dad I used to have when I was little whenever I see him. And he reminds me of Brianna so sharply sometimes that it hurts.

"You've got someone here to see you," he says. "She's not a reporter. I've checked."

He moves aside and is replaced by a young woman who's probably only a year or two older than me. She's expensively dressed, kind of like Astrid when she does her television interviews, but at the same time totally different. She's small and slight but she still looks fierce. Despite her caramel skin and jet black hair, something in the look in her eyes reminds me of Breeze. I have to turn away.

"If you're not a reporter then what do you want?"

"I could help you."

"Do I look like I need help?" I retort sharply, but instead of backing away like most people do in response to the glare I gave her, she stands her ground and shrugs her shoulders. The gesture seems out of place on someone who appears so together and composed. "I don't even know you."

"I'm Janelle. And I heard you have a problem with an emancipation case, namely your own."

"There isn't an emancipation case. Big media shows aren't my thing so I guess I'm just going to have to wait it out," I tell her, thinking of Brianna and how she used to perform for the cameras. "And what's it to you anyway?"

"I could help. I'm going to Harvard. To law school. I'm going to be the best attorney in the country," she replies with no hint of self-doubt.

"And you're so modest with it," I say sarcastically, but as soon as the words leave my mouth I remember the last time I said something similar and who I was speaking to when I said it. "I have to go."

And though I forgot about it soon after, in time I would come to remember that day as the first time I met a lawyer named Janelle.

* * *

Aftermath Two

On the day of my seventeenth birthday, I try to go back to school. I last less than a day.

I'm no Astrid, but I'm a long way from stupid, and it wasn't that I couldn't do the work. I just couldn't bear the place itself, the crowds of people, the enclosed environment, the rules I'm far too used to living outside of.

Something about my trip to high school brings everything flooding back. Despite everything, I miss the FAYZ. I miss controlling gravity, I miss the respect I had, and I miss Breeze. I miss her every second of every day. It's at times like this that I know everyone who's told me it would get easier was lying.

And that's how I end up racing through the school grounds like I'm never going to stop instead of going to math.

I'll never go back there again. I can't.

* * *

"Hey," says a familiar voice from behind me, and when I turn around, she's there.

"Are you real?" I ask, the question sounding stupid as soon as I say it because I know she's gone.

"Does it matter?" she replies, stepping closer, so close I could almost reach out and touch her.

"I can't deal with school, Breeze," I tell her, shrugging my shoulders in defeat. "I guess I suck at following rules as much as you do."

"It's the rules that suck, not you," she retorts. "Don't bother with them. Do something else."

"What?"

"Whatever you want. You're you. You can do anything."

"That's crap and you know it, Breezy. I have nothing. No qualifications. Nothing."

"But you've got money."

"Money," I think, and suddenly I'm sitting bolt upright in the park gazebo, totally alone.

I look at my watch and know I must have fallen asleep. But now I have an idea and I'm wide awake. I don't know if I can make it work, but I'm going to try because Brianna would want me to. And because _I _want to. For the first time since Gaia destroyed my everything with a beam of light from her hand, I have a plan, a place to start.

* * *

Aftermath Three

Hollywood makes the movie in the end. They release it on the fourth anniversary of the end of the FAYZ amidst a flurry of promotional activity and millions of people all over the world flock to see it.

I'm not one of them. I avoid it like the plague. Seeing posters and billboards is enough for me. And is more than close enough to the slight young strawberry-blonde actress wearing denim shorts and battered sneakers who calls herself the Breeze.

But the small percentage of the film's takings I get is good though, and I plough it straight back into the charity. _My_ charity, I correct. The charity I set up that provides support for children and young people who have no one else to turn to.

I smile at the thought of its success. It seems my fame as a FAYZ-survivor is good for something after all, and it keeps me occupied, it doesn't leave me time to think.

"You always said I think too much," I whisper, looking across at the photo of Brianna that still rests on my desk after all this time.

* * *

Aftermath Four

"Dekka! Dekka! We won!"

I look up just as Janelle bursts into my office without knocking, her face all lit up with her victory. Ten years ago I met a cocky high school graduate on her way to Harvard, and she kept the promise she made to me that day. She went to law school, graduated top of her class and then became one of the top human rights lawyers in the country.

"Did you hear me, Dekka?! We won. They dropped all charges and threw the case out of court!"

Some of the young people my charity helps require legal aid, and over the years, that legal aid has increasingly come to involve Janelle. For months we've been working to help a thirteen-year-old girl who killed her abusive step-father in self defence, and today was the day of the final verdict.

"I know there'd got to be a reason I put up with you," I tell her, rolling my eyes at the exuberance of the woman who has become my closest friend before giving in to the smile I can't hold back.

She flies around my desk and into my arms, not giving me the chance to push her away like I usually would, like I have so many times before. Her small weight is next to nothing in comparison to the massive force of her personality in a way that's painfully familiar even after all this time.

"OK, OK, at least try to remember you're this hotshot, professional lawyer not a kid in a candy store," I say, pushing her back to her feet. "Someone might see you and your badass reputation will be ruined."

To my total surprise, her only response to that is to lean down and kiss me, briefly but firmly enough to leave me breathless. I stare speechless up at her for several seconds before finally finding my voice.

"Jan, I can't. I'm sorry…"

"She died over ten years ago, Dekka. You can and will grieve forever, but she wouldn't want this. She wouldn't want you to go home to an empty house for the rest of your days."

"I know. I just… I'm not good at this."

"I've waited this long for you, Dekka Talent, and you should know by now that I don't quit at anything. Consider this a warning."

"Is that a promise?"

"Absolutely," she replies, grinning widely back at me. "So come out with me and celebrate yet another triumph for justice."

I shake my head in defeat, smiling at the same time. Just as it was ten years ago with a very different person, resistance is futile and I know it.

* * *

**_I tried an AU ending where Brianna lives, but I can't seem to stop it from descending into total fluff. I might post it anyway, but other than that, this is it - thank you for reading and especially to those of you who've commented :)_**


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